The Return of Bat
by Bat13SJx
Summary: The sequel to my first MVA fanfic: Bat. A teen monster who fights aliens with her new monster friends. Unfortunately since she is under eighteen, she has to finish high school and graduate; covering her monster identity and blending in with the other high schoolers. A continuation of the life of a teenage monster.
1. Prologue

The Return of Bat (The Sequel to Bat)

**This story is a rewrite and sequel to my first ever Fan Fiction story, and first fanfic in the Monsters Vs. Aliens universe; The first one is called Bat, this one is The Return of Bat. I had written around eight MvA fanfics back in 2009, but I plan on making this hopefully just a trilogy. I have brought some elements from my old MvA fanfics into this one, but overall it is an entirely new story. I had really enjoyed coming back to rewriting and going back to the first fanfics that started off my writing. I hope you enjoy:**

By Bat13SJx

_Prologue_

...

Name: Classified

Monster name: Bat

Captured: May 30, 2009

Age: 17

Sex: Female

Race: Caucasian/American

Hair: Dark brown

Height: 5'4"

Weight: 125lbs

Skin: White

Eyes: Yellow with black slits ("cat-like")

Monster type: Bat girl (Experiment, with alien DNA)

Special abilities/features: bat features (ears, wings, and fang(s)) eyes: alien, night vision; sonic screech, acute hearing, flight speed: average 50mph

...

_My name is Bat...My real name has been classified for the safety of my friends and family...I am a monster. A real monster. Not those ones you see in the horror movies. An actual monster. I never was always a monster. I was once a human being...__I kept having this nightmare every night. It always started the same, and ended the same way. I now know how I became this way:_

_I am an experiment created by an ex-governmet man named John. He used a shape shifting alien we call October for his horrible experiments. He took October's DNA and injected it into me. I was going to be a new revolution. A new being for some kind of government project. I escaped, along with October. We ran until we got trapped at the edge of a cliff. We got caught by John and his men. The men took October back. John used his mind erase gun on me before I fell off the cliff. I survived, and was found by General W.R. Monger and his men, where they took me back and placed me in a monster facility with other monsters whom I have become friends with. _

_Since then, I have woken up every day as a monster; saving the world from alien invasions, and John. Most of my memories recovered, still so many questions unanswered..._

_This story is about me. The true story of my life as a monster, and the times I spent as a monster...This is my story...as Bat..._

_..._


	2. Chapter 1: What I Did Over the Summer

Chapter 1: What I Did Over the Summer...

...

* * *

_New Mexico, 2009..._

It was near the end of summer, close to September. The hot sun was seen high in the bright blue cloud filled sky. The air was warm and felt so nice against my pale white face. A lovely perfect day...and a giant alien octopus looking robot attacking a city.

I flew high above, insepecting the scene through my sunglasses, flapping my bat wings above the situation below me. Below my monster friends were fighting an alien robot that looked like a metal octopus with red eyes and red ringed lights from the joints and suction cups.

Susan was ripping out the lashing metal tendrils. Doctor Cockroach was tinkering with a new invention he just made up right on the spot with random items near him. B.O.B. was...being B.O.B. He was talking to birds again; and Link...was being his tough amazing self as always... Dodging the laser beams with ease and ripping off the alien looking guns from the top of the octopus as if they were made of paper-

"Bat! We need your assistance!" Susan shouted up to me. I literally got my head out of the clouds and swooped down. The robot saw me and used a couple of its tentacles to come after me. I did a wide barrel roll, dodging them in the process.

One of the tentacles nicked me on the shoulder. I winced and bit my lip to keep from screaming out from the pain. Two more nicked me, nearly taking me down. I tried not thinking about the blood dripping down my pale arms as I came in close and screamed at the alien robot in the alien robot's force field and shields broke as the strange alien metal began to buckle and concave inward like a crushed can. It took a couple steps back from the impact, crashing into a building and causing it to crash into another building.

"Shields down!" Doctor Cockroach said excitedly as he climbed up the robot on all fours and entered into the main power core or whatever he describes the tech stuff as. I don't bother getting into details. It's his thing. I'm just for taking down the other stuff. Anything with a wave frequency or a type of force field where I can hit the right frequency and disable it.

Sometimes it doesn't work and we have to figure out a different way. I'm usually the scout. Getting the aerial view of the situation. I get chased by smaller crafts sometimes when they see me. Sometimes I get the final blow and take down the aliens. I sometimes forget how powerful my scream is.

Once Doc was inside the robot octopus' brain, Susan came in and began punching the robot octopus in the face. Link took out the last of the laser guns that were shooting at us, and B.O.B. befriended a pigeon.

"Guys! Look! He's my new friend!" B.O.B. said as he held the pigeon upside down in his four fingered blue hand. I was about to tell the blue blob something about holding his "new friend" upside down when I felt something crash into me and sent me flying to the other side. Frantic, I opened my wings up and quickly flapped them till I was right side up and in control. I got smacked by one of the octopus arms and it was coming for me again.

I was in a lot of pain and decided to get back to the ground. Once I got to the ground, I limped across the street. The octopus lifted a couple metal tentacles and was about to bring them down on me and crush me, but Link and Susan intervened in time, grabbing them. I picked up my pace and limped as fast as I could. I tried keeping myself out of sight while the others finished off the alien robot. We were almost done anyway so I needed to rest.

I sat down on the curb under a tree. Breathing heavily. My heart was beating fast and my head was throbbing. My body was shaking, but other then that, I was allright. It was not an easy job, but I think we as a team did pretty allright taking down aliens. A couple times we had alien species get away and come back again at another day, or just not come back at all.

I heard a loud crash and looked up. The robot octopus crashed into a building and was out cold. We won. Link grinned as he jumped down and landed on Susan's shoulder. "Not bad, Ginormica. You did amazing back there," he complimented her as he always did after every alien battle. He still was trying to win Susan's heart. I secretly wished he would compliment me on my part in taking down the aliens.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard someone call my name. I look up to see Doctor Cockroach coming up to me. He went down on one knee and inspected my wounds; gently moving my arms to get a better look and cupping my chin to lift my head up.

"Not too bad this time," he said as he pulled out a roll of bandages and began to treat my wounds. I winced when he poured the medicine on my shoulder. It stung so bad. Nothing that I wasn't used to.

"You are getting better with your new abilities," he said smiling gently as he wrapped my arms. I nodded slightly as a thank you. I was too tired to talk, and my throat was sore from using my sonic screech.

I got a couple nasty looking wounds from fighting the aliens all the time. I was the one who looked worse for wear then the others after every fight. I had a powerful attack, but not a good defense. Monger has given me some protective gear for when I had to go out and take down an alien invasion, but sometimes it got in the way and made me heavier, so I was unable to fly longer periods of time. I came back looking more like a mummy then a teen with bat features. Link was the one who loved pointing it out to me. Thankfully my healing ability was fast, so within the break there were no alien invasions, my body could heal.

Doc told me in the beginning that he wasn't a medical doctor, more of a mad doctor; but he did have some years of learning the medical stuff to please his father, before moving to America and doing his crazy "mad doctor" experiments here. He didn't mind being my medical doctor and helping me whenever I got hurt. I felt bad since I seemed to be the one always getting hurt to where I required medical assistance.

This summer has been hectic.

Besides me becoming a monster, finding out I was an experiment by an ex government man named John, who took alien DNA from an alien who we named October, and injected it into me to give me these weird bat features and weird powers; Susan had her weird alien encounter too.

We fought this one alien named Gallaxhar or something. He kidnapped Susan because apparently she had his Quantonium that made her giant sized. He was pretty tough, his clones were fun to fight since they were not good at fighting, but we defeated him. Also Insecto became a huge butterfly. He got hit by Gallaxhar's blast and cocooned himself. Link was devastated when he thought he lost his best friend. Tears ran down my face losing Insecto and seeing Link in that state. I wanted to go up to him, but Doc told me to give him space. The whole thing was heart wrenching.

Thankfully when we were getting away, and falling to our deaths, Monger came riding on Insecto and saved us. It was an interesting Friday. So now Butterflyasaurous is new on the team. We don't say he anymore, Insecto-er-Butterflyasaurous prefers to be identified as a she.

I remember overhearing Butterfly asking Link something when we went back to the base. From what I gathered, Butterfly was asking Link what he thought of her transformation and gender change. He said it surprised him, but he was good with it.

"I don't think differently of you, B. You are still my best friend. If you are happy with it, I'm happy." Those words made Butterflyasaurous very happy and she screeched for joy. She stopped smiling when she saw me hiding, eavesdropping on their conversation. I quickly moved away out of their line of sight,and briskly walked down the dark hall, feeling the waves of heat burn my face.

Even after B's transformation, I dont think she likes me. Ever since I met the monsters, Insecto always stared at me, as if he knew something. When Insecto became Butterfly, she still gives me this stare. Not angry stare. Its emotionless. It creeps me out sometimes. I have a feeling she knows I have a crush on Link and doesn't like that I do. I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it.

Once Doc was done bandaging me up, Link, B.O.B. and Susan came over to us. Link smirked at my appearance. "Hey, Bat Mummy lives again!" He joked as he stuck his arms out and did a mummy impression. I rolled my eyes as I tried getting up.

Just then there was a sudden gust of wind. Butterfly screeched as she came down to greet us. She wasn't able to come and fight with us today because she had to help the government with a top secret project. Most likely to move something to the base or something since she was basically like having nine or ten helicopters at once. With the proper gear and cables, she can lift any heavy top secret object with ease and fly it to the base.

Link waved to her. "Hey! There's my girl!" He said as he came over to ruffle her fur. B smiled happily when she saw her best friend come up to her. I limped up to her and waved shyly. "Hey B. How was the flight?" I asked. B turned and looked down at me. Her face expressionless. She gave me a quick screech. Link translated for me.

"She said it was tiring," he said for me.

"Oh...ok." I said. I looked down at my feet for a moment. "...could I get a lift? I got hurt pretty badly again," I said. B lowered her wing for me. I sat down on the tip of it. Once I was on, she gently lifted her wing till it was at an angle to where I slid along her wing till I was on her back. I thanked her, but she seemed too busy with Link. Susan, Doc and B.O.B. figured out their own ways getting up on Butterfly's back.

Once we were all set, Butterfly lifted her wings and flapped. She was very careful not to hit the buildings, even though most of the buildings all the locals in the city of New Mexico evacuated from were destroyed.

Once she was over the city, she took off towards the direction of our home. The secret government base we are not allowed to say the name out loud blah blah blah, etc. etc...

Link appeared from Butterfly's head and slid down to where the rest of us were sitting. My heart lifted when he started walking along B's back towards me, then it sank when he walked past me and towards Susan.

I turned my attention away from them and looked down at the landscapes below, wishing I didn't get beaten up so bad today so I could fly on my own...

...


	3. Chapter 2: Movie Night

Chapter 2: Movie Night

* * *

...

When we came back to the base, I waited for the others to go ahead so I could talk to Link more privately. I waved to Link with my bandaged arm.

"H-hey Link."

Link turned to me, one ear fin up and one down, while giving me a puzzled look. I smiled and fumbled with my pale fingers. I always felt so nervous around him. My heart thumped so much it ached. My palms were very sweaty under my fingerless black gloves.

"R-Ready for tonight?" I asked him nervously. His other fin flicked up and he nodded. "Yeah...Don't forget the popcorn." With that he turned and left. I watched him walk down the hallway to his room. I smiled happily.

I finally got the courage to ask him if he wanted to watch the Creature from the Black Lagoon movie with me. A month ago, he got me the trilogy of the Creature on DVD for my birthday. He promised that he would watch it with me. Since then we had been so busy with many alien sightings across the United States, we didn't have time to hang out and chill.

I got to my room and laid on my bed. I stared up at the ceiling at let that scene play back in my head:

I stood there in front of the huge metal wall that acted as a door for Link's room. I took a deep breath and exhaled before knocking on his door. I had to knock again after waiting a few minutes longer than I needed to. Finally the wall opened up and Link appeared on the other side. He looked around before looking down and noticing me. He crossed his arms and leaned against the side of the threshold.

"Yeah?" he asked.

My pale palms started to sweat under my fingerless gloves. "Um...w-would you...uh..." I stumbled over my words. Every second got worse and worse. My face started to turn darker shades of red. Link waited patiently for me to get the words out.

"Wouldyouliketowatchamoviewithmetonight?" I finally asked. Links finned ears flicked against the side of his head in confusion. "What? I didn't catch that. Say it slower, Batsy," he said. I took a deep breath and exhaled. I was very nervous.

"Would you like to watch a movie? Tonight?" I asked. Link thought for a moment. "...There hasn't been talk of an alien invasion..." he said before looking down at me. "What movie? The Creature?" He asked. I nodded. He was silent for a moment, which caused a cold sweat to run down the side of my head.

"It's ok if you c-" I started, but then he interrupted me.

"Ok."

My heart skipped a beat. I blinked. "Ok?" I asked. Link nodded. "Yeah. I haven't seen it. Might as well. Like you said, I'm practically him. I should watch the movie," he said. I opened my mouth wide as a mixture of shock and pure excitement. "Ok!" I said. Link cocked his head a little to the side. I quickly looked down and hid my blushing red face behind my hair. "Ok. Yeah." Trying to sound casual but most likely failing.

I heard Link chuckle a little and ruffle my hair. I lifted my head up and stuck my tongue out at him. I was just gonna tell him something before the alarm went off and Monger shouting to us about another alien sighting, and that the alien looked like a giant robot octopus...

I smiled as I gazed up at the ceiling, thinking about all the scenarios of what might happen while we watch the movie...

...

I chose the time for us to watch the movie at eight, when everyone went to bed after dinner. I was already in the hangout room getting everything prepared. I made a bucket of popcorn, moved the coffee table closer so we could prop our feet up, and placed the DVD down on the DVD player. The lights were dim enough to where I could stand the brightness.

I turned when I heard Link come up to the doorway.

"So is anyone else coming to watch it with us?" Link asked. I paused for a moment where I stood. I didn't think up a lie on why I didn't invite the others. I just wanted it to be me and him watching the movie.

"Uh...I asked...they said they were too tired..." I responded slowly, suddenly feeling warmer then before. My shirt was feeling damp. God, I was a wreck. Trying to act calm when the inner voices in my head were screaming at the tops of their lungs. Thankfully Link bought it and came into the hangout room. I turned around and placed the DVD into the player and used the remote to turn the TV on.

Link sat down at the couch. I cautiously came around the coffee table and gently sat down on the couch next to him, careful not to sit on my wings.

I had brought a big bowl of popcorn I microwaved earlier over to the hangout room and offered the fish man some. He took a handful and dropped them into his mouth. I watched him curiously. When he noticed me staring, I quickly turned away and pressed the play button. From the corner of my eye, I saw him toss a couple more pieces of popcorn into his mouth.

"So...how many times have you seen this movie?" He asked me. I shrugged. "I dunno. At least fifty to sixty times," I said. Link's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh dang. I assumed at least six or seven times," he said. I shook my head. "I watched this movie when I got sick, when I was sad, when my parents were fighting..." I stopped. Link noticed.

I turned away, feeling crappy for bringing that part of my life up. Link quickly changed the subject. "So, is there any kissing in it?" He asked. Waves of heat washed over me. I smiled and shook my head. "Um...uh...t-there are sweet moments," I said.

The familiar sounds of the trumpets came on as the grey world that looked like it was made of clay slowly spun around. Link groaned a little. "...It's going to be one of those movies isnt it?" He asked. I didnt know what he meant but decided to play with his words.

"If you mean amazing and epic then yes!" I said grinning at him. He chuckled and turned his head to the movie. After the intro, the narrator came on, describing the Earth when it was first formed. Just a floating orb with a surface of a dozen oceans. I decided to have fun and pointed at the screen.

"Was the earth really like that?" I asked him. Link gave me a look. "I'm not that old!" Link snapped, but in a playful way. He wasn't that angry. I laughed. "Did you ride dinosaurs to school?" I jokingly asked him. He gave me a playful shove. "I ate dinosaurs for breakfast," he said grinning, revealing his sharp teeth. I laughed.

We joked about moments in the movie. Link laughed when I joked about the cheesy green screen moments and pretended to be amazed by "how real and amazing the scenery looked."

"I thought you liked this movie," Link laughed. I grinned. "I do! the Gill Man is my favorite classic monster. He's so cool." Link smirked at me before shoveling another handful of popcorn into his mouth.

"What makes him so cool to you?" He asked me. I looked over to the screen. "I mean...just look at him! His whole look. The idea that he came from another time and his love interest in the girl...His movies to me are so much more interesting."

Link nodded. "Yeah. I like him, for obvious reasons, and The Wolfman," he admitted. I looked over to him. "You like the Wolfman?" I asked. Link nodded. "Yeah." My ears went side ways in a quizzical way. "Why is that?" I asked. Link told me how the Wolfman was basically the only monster of the classic monsters who wasn't born a monster, and was turned into one. He found the idea very unique. I smiled a small smile. I wasn't born a monster. I wondered if he liked how I became a monster.

I pointed out things to Link in the movie, like how the creatures design was created by a woman, the sequel, Revenge of the Creature, was Clint Eastwood's first movie, and how the Creature had an appearance in the Munsters. Link was amazed by my Creature movie trivia. It felt nice being nerdy and being noticed for it.

I smiled when my favorite scene came on. Julie Adam's was swimming in the water in her white bathing suit. Underneath her, was the Gill man himself. It was such a romantic scene, I couldnt help but to sigh. Blushing. I imagined me and Link swimming together the same way. I turned to look over at him. Link seemed intrigued by the swimming scene. Most likely was falling for Julie Adams. My yellow eyes flickered downward.

Link's hand was near mine on the couch. My eyes kept looking over to it. My whole body began to heat up at the idea of placing my hand on top of it. Link noticed my red face. He thought I was getting sick or something. I lied and said that I was sensitive to the room temperature and said it was warm.

Link got up and changed the thermostat.

"That better?" He asked.

I lied and said yes.

"I didn't change it a whole lot, since I'm more sensitive to the cold than you are," he said as he came back to the couch and sat next to me.

"You cold blooded?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Yeah. It's not fun, I'll tell you that. I'm more into the hot climates. Warm waters." he commented. I nodded. "So, if you were in, let's say Antarctica, you'd turn into a Fishsicle?" I asked smirking.

Link gave me a look, but a smirk played on his face. Then he chuckled and shook his head. I always liked it when he laughed, especially at my dumb jokes.

We watched the rest of the movie. It's only about an hour and roughly twenty minutes. Link wasn't all that happy when the monster died. I told him that he came back in the second movie.

"In the same way, I wished they gave the creature a happy ending in this one," I said.

Link stared at me for a moment. "Does he get a happy ending in the other movies?" He asked. I hesitated. "Do you want me to spoil the movies for you?" I asked him. Link thought for a moment, then his broad shoulders sank.

"I think I can figure it out on my own. It's what every monster gets. A sad, tragic ending," he said. Link didn't look at me to see me nod. He knew the formula. Monsters were automatically the bad guys. The antagonists. I always found the creature's movies the most sad. I never saw the Creature as the bad guy. The humans were the bad guys. They invaded his home, polluted his waters, and killed him when all he was doing was trying to live in a time that was not his. He was all alone in the world.

I turned to Link, remembering him telling his story to us. He's the only one of his kind. I kind of related with him. Being the only teen in the universe with bat ears and wings. Close to being a teen vampire I guess. All thanks to a horrible man named John. The real monster. I was an experiment. Alien DNA running in my veins. October's blood. A real alien who crash landed on earth years ago. He too was one of John's experiments.

I hesitated for a moment before looking over to Link on the couch, checking if there was anymore popcorn in the bowl.

"So...what did you think of the movie?" I asked. Link looked over to the screen as it showed the end credits. "I liked it...Much better then I thought it would be. Good acting," he said. I smiled.

"So...You up to watch the second one?" I asked him. Link hesitated for a moment. "Um. I'm kind of beat. We can watch it some other time," he said. My bat ears went down a little. "Oh...ok," I said. I was kind of hoping to continue watching, but I could see that Link was having a hard time staying up.

With that, Link got up from the couch, taking the empty popcorn bowl with him. "Thanks for showing me the movie," he said. I smiled. "You are welcome...this was fun." Then I got nervous and quickly said. "We should do this again sometime."

Link turned to look at me. I adverted my eyes and tucked my hair behind my bat ear, but it came out and landed in front of my face. "Um...Goodnight," I quickly said before turning away and leaving.

"Bat," Link called.

I stopped and turned. "Yeah?" I asked.

Link pointed to the DVD still in the DVD player. "You forgot something," he said. Embarrassed, I walked back over and took the DVD out of the player and back into its case. I turned off the player and silently walked out with the movie in my hands. I was so embarrassed, I didn't turn to look at Link. I just quickly walked away back to my room.

...


	4. Chapter 3: Close Encounters

Chapter 3: Close Encounters

* * *

...

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait! Got caught up in stuff. Gonna get back to writing! **

...

The next morning I unraveled the bandages from my arms. I had somewhat healed over night. I had some sore spots here and there, but other then that, I was ok. I was still in some ways human after all. I came into the cafeteria where they were serving breakfast. Everyone was already up eating. Susan had her own section she ate at. We sometimes came in to join her.

The cooks were busy in the kitchens. Warm steam wafted through the air, producing mouth watering smells of food. My stomach growled. I walked over to the stack of plastic red trays in the corner and made my way down the cafeteria line. Behind the glass in different tubs, were mounds of bacon, eggs, toast and pancakes. The donut bin was completely empty. I was surprised that all of the bins weren't empty, considering that B.O.B. would most likely have cleaned out everything before I could get something to eat. Fortunately it seemed that the cooks were prepared for his endless appetite and was able to have enough left for monsters like me who wake up late.

"Good morning, Bat," said Doctor Cockroach in his happy British accent as he passed by me towards the garbage can near the entrance/exit of the cafeteria. B.O.B. and Link sat across from each other at a table. Link, enjoying a pile of fish and waffles. The blue blob eating practically everything that I saw that was available, even the tray. One of the cooks yelled his name and he immediately burped up the plastic red tray.

A typical monster morning.

I grabbed a plate and piled on some scrambled eggs, bacon and some toast, grabbed a carton of milk and walked over to the two monsters. I sat down next to Link. He didnt say hi or notice me. He was busy reading some sort of magazine. I never took him to be a reader. Most likely he was looking at the pictures. I wouldn't be surprised if there were girls in bikinis in the middle of a beach volley ball game or sitting on some type of flashy sports car. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and ate my scrambled eggs. My arms were still sore so I had to be careful. I winced in pain whenever a small stab of pain shot up my arm.

I looked over to Link, deciding to break the awkward silence. "Hey, Link. Whatchya reading?" I asked him. He didn't answer. I tried again. This time he said "Hey, Batty." I asked him for the third time what he was reading. He sighed softly and showed me the cover. It was a beach magazine with girls in bikinis on the front. Figures. I just smiled softly, but I'm sure I looked like I was grimacing.

"Cool," I said. "Looks...interesting," I said through clenched teeth. Man I was so bad at this.

Link went back to "reading." It was quiet again for a while. I racked my brain for something else to talk to him about. My eyes lit up and I turned to the hybrid fish man.

"Hey, you want to watch the second Creature movie?" I asked him. Before he could answer, B.O.B. overheard our conversation and came over. "Creature movie? You guys saw the first one without me?" He asked. I felt the blood drain from my face. Oh no. Link looked up from his magazine and eyed me. I had told him I had "asked the others." Of course I didn't. It was supposed to be just him and me. Just some nice...getting to know one another. That's all...

I didn't realize I hadn't said anything for a full minute. I was smiling nervously. Was my face red? Most likely. How long was I quiet for? They are all staring at me.

"Uhhhhh-" I started. Thankfully, the lights started flashing red and that annoying but familiar beeping sound started going off. My ears went back in irritation. The alien alarm. Great. The speakers crackled before Mongers voice echoed through the base.

"Monsters! You know what time it is!" He shouted. He seemed to enjoy it when aliens attacked. He didn't have to go out, while we were the ones risking our lives all the time. Link's finned ears perked up as he got up and slapped his magazine down on the table.

"Hell yeah! Alien Butt kicking time!" He said excitedly as he punched his fist into his open palm. Doc lifted his head out from the trashcan. "Ooh! I can try my new invention out!" He said. Link rolled his eyes. "Better not be another one of your dumb experiments," he said as he walked out with the mad scientist. B.O.B. followed behind them. "Hey guys wait up!" He said, acting like an overexcited blue puppy that heard it was time for a walk.

My wounds from yesterday started to hurt from the mention of having to kick more alien butts. Most likely my butt was gonna get kicked. I sighed and got up. The last monster to leave the cafeteria. I didnt eat much of my breakfast. I quickly took a forkful of eggs in my mouth, a swig of milk and a piece of bacon. Hopefully that will suffice before I get back. I'm gonna be so tired.

I opened my wings and flapped them. My body lifted off the ground and I flew after the male monsters. I flew over them and gave them a funny face. "Last one there is a Rotton Egg Monster!" I teased. Link grinned and took the challenge. He bolted after me first. The others sprinted after him, trying to make it to the other side of the huge base. The hallways were long, cold grey, and felt somewhat endless. We were heading to the loading zone. The place where the platform lifted up for aircraft. I always forget what its called.

I soared across the hallway. Flapping my wings every so often. I smirked down at Link, sprinting as fast as his scaly arms could go. He gave me a look. "You're cheating, Bat Brains!" He said. I flew down just above his head. "Aw, you're just afraid of losing to a girl, Fishst-" I started, but was interrupted when Link shot his arm up and grabbed me around the waist.

"Gotcha!" He shouted triumphantly. I felt my cheeks flame up. "Link!" I cried out. He wrapped his arms around me, pulled me close to his chest, spun around and pushed me the opposite direction. I didn't have time to react when I collided into B.O.B. The blue blob quickly stopped and spat me out. I just laid there, dazed; listening to Link's laughter as it echoed down the halls.

Doc stopped and helped me up. "That dreadful, Link. Thinking he's all cool. If you ask me, he's nothing but an arrogant meat head," he muttered, but of course I heard every word. My brain just wanted to repeat the moment over and over again when he grabbed me out of the air. Man I was so lovesick for the hybrid. I didn't realize how dumb I must have looked at that moment. B.O.B. apologized for accidentally running into me, then instantly took off running after Link.

"There's no rush, Bat. Let's just walk," Doc said. I folded my wings behind my back and walked alongside the mad scientist. Doc tried some small talk with me, but it was a bit awkward since it wasn't something he was used to doing. I just smiled politely and nodded my head.

By the time we got there, Link was leaning against the wide doorway with his arms crossed over his wide chest. "Well look it who it is. The Rotton Egg Monsters," he teased. I rolled my eyes. "You cheated, Fish Breath," I said. Link bent down and cupped a hand behind his right finned ear. "What's that? Dont like losing to The Link?" He chuckled. I narrowed my eyes. The hairs on the back of my neck bristled.

Doc walked past us. "Oh knock it off you two. The aliens aren't going to kick their butts themselves," he said as he walked past Link and through the wide door. Link smirked at me and stuck his tongue out.

"Rotton Egg Monster," he said before following after Doctor Cockroach. I sighed and followed after them. Butterflyausaurous stood in the middle of the dark platform. She lifted her head in delight when she saw Link walking up to her. She gave him a happy screech. Link grinned and came up to her. "Hey, beautiful! How's my girl?" He asked her, giving her a loving pat on the nose. The three hundred and fifty foot tall insect's eyes lit up and made another high pitch shrill, causing my ears to go back in irritation.

Susan, B.O.B. and Doctor Cockroach were on the other side, talking to Monger. I didn't have to go over there since I could already hear what they were saying. I even knew, besides B.O.B.'s, how fast everyone's heartbeats were going. Even mine, which, yes, was going like a hundred miles an hour. Monger still gestured for me to come and join with the group, even though I tell him every time there's an alien invasion, that I can hear him just fine from where I stood. Of course Monger doesn't understand that and still calls me over. Susan turned her head and looked down at me. She lightly taps her shoulder.

"You can sit up here, Bat," the giantess said. I hesitated before opening my wings and flapping them, flying up roughly forty feet and landing feet first on her shoulder. I felt like a little bird perching itself on a Disney princess. Of course Susan would be a beautiful princess. Wearing a lovely gown and dancing with a prince with scales and fins. I quickly sat down on Susan's shoulder, pushing my thoughts to the back of my mind before I made myself depressed.

Monger stood before me and Susan. He looked so small from where I sat. I wonder if this is how Susan saw the world every day, I wonder how long it took her to get used to it. Link and B came over as well. I glanced over at B who gave me a blank stare before turning away. Even though she was showing no emotion, I got the feeling that she didn't really like me. She had to know I had a crush on her best friend.

"Monsters! Listen up! The alien tracker reported that the alien is in one of the local national forests in this area," he said. He told me later that I couldn't say which National Forest Park or the state since that would be giving away the secret exact location of this place. Him telling me that made my skin crawl. It means that he's been reading my journals. It means he knows. God, can't I have any privacy in this stupid** -[CLASSIFIED BY THE GOVERNMENT CODE: 618-19] - **place?!

Anyway, so the alien tracker tells us the National Park we are supposed to go to. Monger yells some words to us. We climb up on Butterfly, and we fly in the direction of the National park. I decide not to fly since my wings are still covered in blue goo and are starting to harden, and the stuff makes my wings stiff and it's hard to move when I'm like this. If I find a lake or something I can wash the stuff off.

I dunno how long it takes. Feels roughly about an hour or more. The endless desert scenery gradually turning green with trees and foliage. With my impatient teen brain it felt like five hours. Butterfly lands at the front entrance of what looks to be a National Park. We slide down her wing. I thank her. She gives me a half hearted demented chirp. The trees are dwarfed by Butterfly's height as she stands tall and proud. Link looks up at her and smiles. He seems very happy to see her happy. I wondered if she was upset in her last form. I wonder if Link and her talked about it. They are very close friends.

"Hey, B. Wanna go fly above the trees? See if you can see the alien up there?" He asked. Butterfly beamed and gave him a happy roar. She opened her wings and flapped them. The sudden gust of wind knocked me off my feet and caused me to stumble. I heard Link snicker from behind me. If I had known any better, I'd say Butterfly did that on purpose. I grumbled as I got up and dusted the dirt and dead grass off my black pant legs. I should've worn shorts since it was such a hot day today. The sun was beating down on a cloudless blue day. The trees were tall and looked like they have been here for a long time.

The place was deserted, which was the norm for us. I assumed the government still wanted to keep us monsters a secret and keep the public from freaking out. They usually do a fifteen to twenty mile evacuation to keep everyone safe while we do our job. To our right was a small green cabin where I guess you paid to go into the park. On two wooden poles about twenty feet across, was a banner reading Welcome Visitors! Next to the wooden poles were wooden cartoon cutouts of animals. Chippy Chipmunk, Boris Bear Sally Squirrel etc. They looked worn down from the harsh weather. I winced behind my sunglasses as I adjusted them. Susan gestured towards the entrance.

"Allright, let's head inside," Susan said, taking the first big steps to it. Before I walked in, I grabbed a map from the little map holder just outside the green cabin. I needed to find a bathroom or someplace with running water. The light colored fur on the certain areas on my wings were congealed and felt frozen. I wanted to be ready if the alien attacked, I didn't want to be stuck on the ground. Unfolding the map, I checked the spots where there were bathrooms. In the center of the park was a big lake. That'll work. B.O.B. slid past me, looking around.

"Man, this place is huge! How does anyone know where to go or how to get back?" He asked out loud. I showed him my map. "With this map, B.O.B.," I told him. B.O.B.'s one ruby colored eye widened. "Oh!" He took the map from me and held it upside down. "Now where's the snack food shop?" He asked. I smiled and shook my head. I decided to let him figure it out on his own.

I watched as we all instinctively split up. The main path had split up into five smaller paths. It was all part of the hunt. Obviously not good for when you are in a horror movie. When it's dark we stick together. They usually make me lead the way since I can see in the dark better than they can. It has only happened twice. Once it took us till duskfall to find the alien. Doctor Cockroach tried making his own night vision goggles, but they ended up seeing more than just in the dark...

I took the middle path since, according to the map, that's where the lake was. I took my time along the path, listening to the rustling sounds of the trees and the hush of the long grass swaying steadily in the breeze. Besides the heat, it was a nice day. Blue birds chirped overhead. In the distance, a woodpecker was using its beak to make a new home in a tree.

My bat ears picked up other sounds no human could hear on their own. I heard a beaver chewing on a twig. A fox trotting along through the trees. A chipmunk burrowing itself in its home in a tree. It was still a little strange to me, but I have come to like it. My sharp senses have been useful for our Alien Missions a couple of times. It made me happy, feeling like I was part of something. Or even useful. We all had our amazing abilities, and each was useful in their own way. Made me feel more like a superhero, and less like an unwanted creature society couldn't fathom.

I reached my destination and arrived to the lake. I stopped just before the path. The wildflowers bloomed at the edge of the short steep hill. The lake was beautiful. The sunlight sparkled across the surface of the lake like shiny pennies. The water was a piercing light blue, with shades of deep royal blues and purples where the trees created shade. Around the lake were rocks, almost like jagged teeth.

I slid down the slope I was standing upon, which was not smart since I got a couple thorns in my shoe and those seeds with barbs on them. I pulled them out of my shoe and pantlegs before stopping at the edge of the lake.

The water gently rippled at the tips of my shoes. The stones were smooth and slick with algae. I bent down next to a huge rock and began washing my wings. Thankfully the blue goo washed away easily and most of it was gone.

While I was washing my wings, I saw something blinking red next to me. I turned my head and looked at the huge fifteen foot rock to the left of me. One small red light was blinking on it. Confused, I rubbed the mud from the rock. I pulled my hand away. It wasn't a rock. Flapping my wings, I flew up and looked at the weird rock at a different angle.

It was a UFO.

I landed back down where I stood. Well, I didn't find the alien, but I found its ship. The UFO looked like it had crashed into the lake and skidded till it hit land. The driver's side was open so the alien wasn't in the craft. Hopefully it wasn't intending on hurting anyone. We've had some encounters where the alien wasn't intending on hurting anyone and just needed help on fixing its craft. Doc is always volunteering to help. We try to keep him from helping since most of the time he ends up accidentally blowing up their ships.

Suddenly, I heard a sound. A twig snapping. My ears stuck straight up as I lifted my head and spun around lightning fast towards the direction of the trees and the path I came from. My eyes widened behind my sunglasses and my heart skipped a beat in horror. I stood there. Rooted to the spot, not knowing what to do.

It was a boy.

The kid looked at me. Stared at me. He looked to be around my age. He was pale skinned with very light blonde hair and blue eyes behind thick glasses. He was very skinny. He wore blue jeans, a dark blue shirt with an image of green, red and orange UFOs on the front, and a heavy camera hanging around his neck. The kid's bright blue eyes widened in shock as his mouth opened slightly. No sound came out.

I hesitated, not knowing what to do. I felt like a deer caught in headlights. He most likely already saw my wings, and there was no way of hiding my paper white skin and bat ears. Thankfully my sunglasses hide my yellow cat like alien eyes.

None of us moved, unable to speak or even breathe.

I could hear his heartbeats. They were rapidly drumming inside his lanky chest. He was scared. Terrified of my appearance. The breeze rustled his dandelion fluff hair. I didn't know what to do. My eyes kept flickering down to his camera. Did he take a picture of me with it? Maybe he didn't, if I left was he going to? How long had he been standing there watching me? I thought the people evacuated. Maybe he was the alien. Maybe he was-

Suddenly, I heard my name called. "Bat! We found the alien! Come quick!" yelled Susan. In a panic, I spread open my wings and took off through the trees, leaving the kid at the lake. Blood was rushing through my ears and my heart was pounding. I didn't look back to see if the boy was still watching, or worse, taking pictures of me. I kept zipping through the trees till I was far away from the lake and the boy...

...


	5. Chapter 4: Solo Mission

Chapter 4: Solo Mission

* * *

...

I didn't tell anyone about my encounter with the boy. A...human. Felt weird to say it that way. Was I still human? Or was I now separated from the human race? Was I my own being? Was I going to get in trouble?

It felt like something you would read in a book. Two worlds meeting for the first time. A monster girl, and a human boy. I sat on the edge of my bed in my bare room. My wings were tired and my face had scratches from the pine needles. I got sunburned badly and had to apply special ointments. I forgot to put on sunblock for my paper white skin before we left.

We just got back from the National Forest. The alien wasn't hostile. It got hurt and needed help. In the beginning it was scared and was attacking us, but then we noticed that it was hurt. We helped it as much as we could. It was speaking a different language and was very scared. He was red with four glossy black eyes and yellow spots. His antennae were weird looking. I can't describe what they looked like. I have to admit, it is still weird to meet different aliens from outer space.

I shifted on my bed and laid there on my side. I mean Monger said we were free, but we seemed to have been nervous about showing ourselves to the public, and the government keeps evacuating everyone to stay safe. When we were given our freedom, it didn't really go well trying to get back into society.

Maybe the government tried covering up their mistake and pretend that us monsters were just a figment of everyone's imaginations. Unlike my parents who permanently lost their memories of me. I was a complete stranger to them.

I shifted uncomfortably on my bed when I thought about my family. I missed them so much. I didn't like that my last memory of seeing them was them screaming in terror at me. Tears of frustration came down my face.

If I had a time machine I would go back and stop John before he erased my family's memories. If I had a time machine I'd go further back and stop John from turning me into a...

I paused for a moment. I haven't thought of that in a long while. I mean, I enjoyed being a monster, and having monster friends...but sometimes...I longed to be normal again.

I thought about it for a second before going back to worrying about when Monger or the government found out about the boy. They found out about everything. I'm sure they already read my last entry in my journal and are hunting the boy down as I was writing this.

Maybe it wasn't a regular human boy. Maybe it was another alien. I rolled over, careful not to crush my wings and blinked up at the ceiling. It could've been October. The alien that I shared DNA with. I considered it for a moment before shaking my head.

No, it couldn't have been him. His eyes weren't yellow and cat like. Like mine. The one thing October couldn't get right in shape shifting were the human eyes. I knew that for a fact.

Suddenly, I heard the familiar sound of a jet-pack. I stiffened. It was Monger. He was coming. I sat up and hesitated as the sound got louder and louder. It stopped a few feet from my door. My hands started to sweat. I heard the sounds of his footsteps and then him stopping in front of my door. Three quick knocks.

"Bat? It's Monger."

I looked up, just as the door opened. Of course Monger had access to our rooms. I didn't have to get up and push the button. Monger walked over to my bed and stood before me in one of his press ironed suits, straight and stiff. He seemed a bit concerned.

He held one of those faded yellow rectangular envelopes you see in movies about spies. A spy handing a secret envelope with a big black question mark or the words TOP SECRET to other spies about secret information. Instead of a question mark, I saw my full, real name on the side of the envelope. I looked up at Monger with a confused look on my face.

"What?" I asked.

Monger hesitated before handing the envelope to me. "I felt that you needed to see these," he said. My heart skipped a beat. Oh no. They found out about me and the boy. He's going to ask why I didn't say anything about him. They are going to...what would they do to me? Ground me? I mean, I guess Monger was now my temporary guardian until my family got their memories back. I bet it was very important for them to know this stuff and to keep us monsters under wraps for now. Maybe show us to the public gradually.

I took the folder nervously from him. With trembling hands, I opened the folder. Instead of seeing me and the boy, I saw the last person I wanted to see. John. There were photographs of John. Still wearing those stupid sunglasses. The scar on his face peeked out from behind the sunglasses. They were all candid shots. He didn't know he was being photographed, but in every shot he had his head turned, like he was paranoid that someone was watching him.

"He was seen near a high school not far from here," Monger said, causing me to look up. "What was he doing there?" I asked. Monger shrugged. "No one knows. We assume that he might be looking for more kids to experiment on. Might have another lab somewhere and is going back to making more..." he gestured to me, but didn't know the words to say what I was. An abomination I could see him thinking of the word, but not wanting to say out loud.

...you," he finally went with.

"When were these taken?"

"Today, when you guys were gone, around fifteen hundred hours."

Took me a while to realize that was three o' clock. I stared down at the photographs again. Monger cleared his throat and continued. "I also wanted to add that if this is a repeating thing he's doing, I was wondering if you are ok with this as your solo mission."

I snapped my head back up at him. A solo mission? I was going to go alone on a secret mission. I suddenly felt very important, and nervous. "What kind of solo mission?" I asked.

Monger went on to describe the solo mission, which was kind of vague if you ask me. Just figure out what John was up to. Why he was there at the school and see if there have been any absent kids.

"We've got it all taken care of, just depends on if you are going to cooperate and if you are willing to do this mission solo," said Monger, eyeing me. I nodded my head. Besides wanting to be normal again, I wanted to feel important on the team. A solo mission. And a way to put John behind bars. It felt so scary but exciting.

Monger nodded back. "Good, your mission starts tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" I gasped. I wasn't mentally ready to start tomorrow! And I was too beaten up from the last physical fight we had a couple days ago. Monger noticed the shocked look on my face and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"It's ok. There's nothing to be worried about. Everything is all sorted out. You already have your classes, your school supplies...everything you need to fit right in."

I went quiet for a moment. How was me going to school a solo mission in figuring out what John was doing? I turned to Monger. "Wait...I'm not actually going to school am I?" I asked. Monger was silent for a moment. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"I didn't want you to get upset at me for telling you this...but...the government told me that you are too young to be doing this whole alien fighting thing. As your guardian, and because of the rules placed in the U.S., you need to be eighteen or older, and you need to graduate high school. We cant have your record say that you are a dropout from high school. I am working on getting you monsters back in society, and if you are ever going to live close to a normal life again, your wings and bat ears aren't going to get you a decent job."

I didn't respond to his answer.

"...You are going to school," he finally said.

I still didn't respond.

"It's still a solo mission. What I said about John and the photos are true, but while the others are fighting aliens, I need you to figure out what John is up to...and finish school..."

I averted my eyes from him. School? It almost sounded like a foreign word. I thought because I became a monster, I was going to be fighting aliens for the rest of my life. Hidden away from society. School. Sounded like punishment... At the same time, it felt like another chance at being normal again.

"Could you do that for me, Bat? Please?" He asked.

I stared at my bare walls and nearly empty dressers in my room. The room was quiet for a long time. Monger sighed, I heard him rub the back of his head. "I know this is a lot to take in, and I'm sorry for not being forward in the beginning about the school thing, but this is very important, Bat. I want to stop John as much as you do. I know you had a horrible experience with him, and I want to put an end to his plans before he goes and does something worse..."

His words hung there in the air for a moment. I remained quiet, letting everything sink in. I sighed, my shoulders drooping, as well as my wings, limp like two blankets on my shoulders. So many emotions ran through me. Excitement, anger, nervousness, fear. I finally glanced up at the general.

"...I don't think I have much choice in the matter," I said. Monger was quiet, but I didn't have to turn my head to know that he was nodding. I turned sideways, but kept my eyes down on the ground before answering him.

"Allright. I'll cooperate," I said.

...

I sat outside on the top of the secret base that was an old hanger that held airplanes. I watched the sunset as best I could. My eyes were very sensitive to light. I always wore my sunglasses, except for when the lighting was dim, I could take them off; but sometimes I felt insecure about them and kept the sunglasses on.

The sun gave off its last blinding rays before disappearing behind the clouds and the mountains in the far distance. The stars came out as the sunset went dark in color. From reds, to purples, then finally to deep midnight blues. In no time, the sky erupted in millions of silver stars. One of the things I liked seeing out here in the middle of nowhere. Where I lived, I only saw about a small handful. Here, it was like the sky was alive and able to show off its wonderful cloak of glittering jewels. I wish I could enjoy it more tonight, but my heart felt like a weight in my chest.

Tomorrow I started school.

I'm not allowed to say the school's name. So I'm just gonna call it The High-school. The High-school where John was last seen at. He was alive, and he was up to something...and I'm going to be the one to stop him.

I was truthfully very nervous. It felt like a lot to give to a teenager. Having to be in disguise, while also figuring out where John was hiding. So many things could go wrong. What if I wasn't ready for this kind of mission? What if I wasn't ready to go back to a normal life. Deep down I wanted it. I wanted my normal life back, but it wasn't going to be the same. I was a monster. There was no way I was ever going to live the same way ever again.

I watched as the bats came out and began their night routine of catching bugs. I stood up from the top of the hanger, spread open my wings, and took a straight dive down. When I got closer to the ground, I quickly pulled up, making a U shape and soared upward into the sky, flying among the bats. Might be the last time I'll be able to use my wings since I'll be too busy with homework and projects.

I angled myself and flapped my wings, soaring above the dark desert landscape. Around me, bats fluttered around like sharp shadows. My wings fanned out, gliding along. The cold wind in my face, my sunglasses off, my cat like alien eyes all sharp and able to finally open and see the dark world as if it were daylight. My bat ears alert and hearing every heartbeat within a certain distance.

I felt alive.

...

* * *

..


	6. Chapter 5: School

Chapter 5: School

...

* * *

...

The next morning, an alarm clock woke me up at five. I groaned in annoyance and pulled the sheets over my head. I never owned an alarm clock before. Monger gave me this ugly silver rectangular one. It gave off this horrible beeping sound that made it sound like the grandmother of alarm clocks.

I reached my arm over to knock it off the dresser. The alarm clock only got louder. I sighed and decided to get up. Once I sat up, I immediately wanted to lay back down. My hair was a mess and the inside of my mouth tasted like death. I was not used to waking up at five.

Eyes glued shut from sleep, I felt my way around my room. I knew where things were, but I was so groggy and out of it, it didn't matter. I ran into practically everything in my room. Once I got my clothes, One eye was able to crack open and I could see. I walked in a zig- zag pattern to the bathroom. I showered, got dressed, and made my way to the cafeteria, it was almost six.

Dr. Cockroach was already up, digging through yesterdays trash to see if there were any new "delectable" pieces in there. He shot straight up in surprise when he saw me sluggishly saunter in.

"Bat? You are up early," Doc pointed out. I yawned, covering my mouth. "Yeah...I have school today," I told him as I grabbed a tray and began choosing my breakfast. Doc blinked in surprise and confusion. "School? Since when did you start going to school? You are a monster," he said. I told him what Monger told me about being "too young" and needing to finish school, etc.

"Oh..." was all Doc said.

I nodded. "Monger says they have it all sorted out, so all I have to do is be "normal" in a school of teenagers, get through high school, and see what John is up to," I said. Doc nodded. "I see...and you are ok with all this?" he asked me. I shrugged, picking up my tray of food and walking over to one of the empty tables.

"I really don't have a choice. Monger and the government are basically my guardians. I'm sure they thought of homeschooling me or something, but weren't able to find a teacher on short notice, and who would be able to stand seeing me like this," I said as I pulled up my sunglasses for him to see my freakish eyes, and to prove a point.

"Still, seems like a lot to go through," he said.

I shrugged and ate my pancakes.

Doctor Cockroach sighed quietly and nodded his head. Doc was silent for a moment before asking a bunch of questions.

"How are you going to hide your wings?" Doctor Cockroach asked. I pulled out my backpack and showed him the holes in the place where the back would rest against. "I slip them through here," I said. Doc silently nodded. He didn't seem to really understand this whole thing, but it seemed that everything had a reason.

"What about during P.E.?" he asked.

"I have a "doctor's note," I don't have P.E. Monger said I can still work out with Link if he's ok with still letting me borrow his equipment. I still have to exercise to keep my wings strong to be able to lift me," I answered.

Doc continued asking questions and I already had an answer for him from what Monger told me.

I would have to wear contacts to hide my eyes. Make-up to cover up my paper white complexion. I would have to wear a beanie or a hoodie to hide my ears. Last but not least was my fang. I did have a set of fangs, but one got ripped off in an accident with me and the other's first encounter with an alien. I would have to keep it hidden and to not get angry, since that's when it juts out.

I finished my breakfast and headed over to the trashcan where Doc stood. I dumped the contents into the trash and left the tray on the counter. "See you later, Doc," I said, shouldering my backback before I left. "Good luck on your first day, Bat," Doc said before he started rifling through the trash again.

I walked back down the very enormous long, tall grey hallway back to my room. It never usually takes long for me to get ready. I'm not one who needs to take hours putting on make up and washing my hair five times till it curls a certain way. I'm usually ok with just putting on jeans and a t-shirt.

This time though, I was gonna be a while, but not for the reason I just mentioned. This was so I could blend in. I had a brand new set of make up. I never had my own make up set before. The only make up I had growing up was Halloween make up for when I wanted to dress up as a skeleton or some sort of zombie. Black, white and sometimes green were my make up colors. This time it was different shades of tan.

I could maybe just put my contacts in and dress up goth. There were kids who were making themselves pale like vampires. I could maybe be like those kids. I did ask Monger that, so I could avoid the whole make up process, but Monger told me I should be blending in, not sticking out. So here I was, stuck putting on make up to look normal. I'm sure if I did stay white, it would have been scary death white that would have made all the students who encountered me become very uneasy.

I wondered if any of my monster friends felt the same when they saw my deathly pale complexion. I still hated looking at myself in the mirror. Especially my eyes. They were still the most terrifying; and here I was, without my sunglasses, staring at the most creepy looking teen monster that lived.

I ignored the negative comments from my mind and began applying the tan colored make up to my face. Afterwards, I tried putting the contacts in. They were blue contacts. I read the directions on how to put them in. I never had contacts before. It was a little scary, even the idea of figuring out how to take them out. They felt itchy and a little uncomfortable.

Lastly I pulled this loosely knitted black beanie over my ears. Had to adjust a little for my ears to sit comfortably inside. It felt very weird since my ears were on top, and now everything was muffled a little, but the beanie was nice and soft. I checked myself in the mirror. Not too bad for a disguise. As long as no one ripped my hat off my head, I looked like a somewhat normal teen.

It was around seven by the time I was done.

I walked out and made my way down the huge corridor and the long elevator ride up. The elevator doors opened and I stepped outside. The sun was barely coming up and the outside air was still cool. I stopped in my tracks when I made it to the surface. A black car was waiting for me with the driver already inside, but that's not why I stopped. Susan, Doc, B.O.B., B, and Link were there next to Monger. Susan and Link were exhausted, they didn't look like morning people. While Doc looked wide awake as usual. Monger had his hands clasped behind his back.

"Monsters, I have a quick announcement. Bat wont be fighting with you guys. She is doing a solo mission," Monger said. The monsters looked surprised. Link looked impressed. Then Doc had to ruin it.

"I thought she was going to school."

I felt the tips of my ears burn when Link burst out laughing. Doc winced when he saw my face and mouthed 'sorry.' Monger sighed. "I should've started with the first part...John is back," he said. Link stopped laughing and everyone went dead quiet. Monger told them everything he already told me. Once he was finished, everyone was caught up...for the most part.

"So...wait...is Bat leaving us? Is school another monster facility?" B.O.B. asked. Link shook his head. "No, B.O.B. School is a place where kids like Bat go to learn and stuff," he said. "Except they look more human, like this," I said as I gestured to my disguised self. B.O.B. turned to look at me.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"It's me, B.O.B." I said

"Who?"

"Bat."

"Where?"

"Right here,"

"Who are you?"

"Bat."

"Where-?"

"All right, All right, enough of this "Who's on first?" skit. Bat's gonna be late for her first class," Monger said as he gently pushed me towards the black car. I grabbed my backpack and got into the back of the dark tinted Nissan. Behind Monger, the monsters waved goodbye to me. B.O.B. turned to Doc and pointed at me. "Who is she? Is she new?"

"Good luck," Monger said. I nodded.

"Have a good day on your first day of school, Batty Bat," Link teased before Monger closed the door. The driver started the car and we were off, down the dirt road, away from the base, and towards my new school.

...

The drive was basically a forty five minute close to an hour drive. I stayed quiet the whole time as I stared out the window. The roads were mainly empty so there was no problem with traffic, except for when we got closer to the school. The place was packed with cars. Parents honking at other parents to hurry up so they could drop off their kid and get to work on time.

I saw a lot of kids leaving their parent's cars and just walking to the school. Some took bikes since they just lived a couple miles from the school. Others skateboarded or rode a scooter. Some of the cool seniors who already had their licences drove their cars into the parking lot. One kid I saw rode a motor bike up to the school and was showing off to a group of girls. Revving his bike and doing a couple wheelies.

This high-school was weird.

"Would you like to get out here, Miss Batula?" the driver asked, speaking to me for the first time. I blinked and turned to him. He looked at me from the rear-view mirror. His eyes were dark brown. He had really nice dark colored skin and a sharp suit on. I looked out the window. There was a bench near some wild flowers on a cracked cement sidewalk. If we stayed in this crazy mess, I wouldn't make it to class on time.

"Um, sure...and you can just call me Bat," I said. The driver nodded. "Noted. You can call me Patrick," Patrick said. I smiled a small smile. "It's nice to meet you, Patrick. Thank you for driving me," I said before getting out of the car. Patrick tipped his hat. "No problem, Bat. I'll pick you up here after school," he said.

Once I was out, I closed the door and he drove off. I followed the kids walking to the school. The school had a chain linked fence that went around the multiple green fields for track, baseball and football. The chain-link fence broke off and became bars. The school had a looming multipurpose room and a bunch of smaller buildings. There were a bunch of pine trees everywhere.

It was similar to my old school in some ways. I felt my heart beating fast. I was very nervous. I knew no one, and had no idea how the layout was. I stopped before the wide open gates that lead into the school. I fished my schedule and map out of my pocket. My first class was English, and it was in the Five Hundred building...wherever the heck that was. Pocketing my schedule, I checked the map. It was to the left of me. I looked up and took a deep breath. Here I was. Solo mission. Going to my new school, on my first day. First day at being normal. I took a step forward and through the entrance. The same kid that was riding his motor bike shoved past me, knocking me to the side.

I regained balance and gave the kid a look. The guy gave me a half wave and continued running. I rolled my eyes, brushing the dirt from my jeans. I muttered under my breath about teaching that kid a thing or two, but decided not to.

I made my way through the hallways with the other teens. I preyed that my disguise worked; worrying that someone would see right through it, maybe see my paper white skin color peeking through. Rip my beanie off my head. Grab my backpack, exposing my wings. There were so many things that could go wrong with this.

I found The five hundred building and walked inside, taking my sunglasses off in the process. A bunch of kids walked or sprinted to their classes, moving in different directions. The five hundred building also had the library. I used to hang out a lot at the library at my old school. It was nice to see a familiar place. Two kids ran past me; their sneakers squeaking against the polished floor as I continued walking, looking around for my first class.

I found my English class on time and slowly walked in. Inside on the white board it said 'Welcome' in fancy cursive. All along the walls were posters of novels that most likely we are going to be reading in class during the semesters. On the other side were old English projects students did possibly last year. The teacher's desk was empty, but it was cluttered with a bunch of knick knacks and jars of pencils, pens and erasers.

I slowed my walk and surveyed the desks. There were a couple kids already sitting at desks, which meant that I didn't have enough time to find a desk. A girl was drawing dragons in class with a black ballpoint pen in her spiral notebook. A boy was on his phone, most likely playing a game. His friend was watching him play. Three girls pushed their desks closer to each other so they could gossip or talk about make-up.

I froze in my tracks when I saw a shock of blonde hair. It was the kid. The kid from the national forest. He was here, in my English class. He sat in the front row of the desks and was staring down at a book in his hands. I kept staring at him. He had his head down, his blue eyes darting back and forth behind his thick black glasses. He was deep into the book he was reading. I was about to see what he was reading when I was shoved from behind. I fell forward to the ground.

"Move it!" snapped a girl's voice. I turned and found a girl glaring down at me. She had pink hair with blue streaks in it, tied into a ponytail. Her eyes were lined in black eyeliner. She wore a shirt that said 'Whatever' but spelled wrong. She wore black tights under a pink and purple skirt. I got up and stepped aside for her, muttering sorry. She just popped her gum at me walked into the classroom.

Close behind her was a big guy with spikey green hair. He was a couple inches taller than me. He looked a little chubby, but he looked like he was trying to slim down. He smirked maliciously at me as he followed behind the girl. He wore a Joker shirt and dark blue jeans. They sat in the back. I decided to stay away from them as best as I could...which meant sitting next to the blonde haired kid with the book. Great.

The bell rang and the rest of the students came shuffling in, followed by the teacher. The teacher looked nice. She had short brown hair and wore a yellow sweater and a black skirt. She smiled warmly and introduced herself and said the English class we were in, just so the other students would check to see if they were in the right class. Sure enough, more than half checked their schedule. One kid left the class, causing the other kids to snicker.

The teacher took roll. I listened carefully to the names being called, and who was responding to their names. The boy who sat next to me that I saw at the park was named Hunter Thorson. The girl's name sounded like mirror. I guess it was Mirr or something, but I just thought of it as Mirror. Mirror Henderson. The Joker looking kid was named Jason Gonzalez. I shifted nervously in my seat when he looked over at me; afraid that he would recognize me. I turned my head away from him. I heard my fake name Monger gave me being called.

"Here," I muttered. The teacher stopped and looked down at me. "You are new here," she said. I nodded. Her name was Ms. T. She had a long complicated last name so she said we called her by the first initial of her last name. She pointed at my shirt which had a couple bats flying across it.

"I like your bat shirt," she said. I felt my face heating up. The whole classroom was quiet, listening to me and the teacher's conversation. "Thanks," I said in a shy voice. The teacher didn't walk away. "I like bats," she said. I looked up in surprise. "Really?" I asked. I never met anyone who liked bats. Usually people gave me looks and said bats were creepy. The teacher nodded.

"Yes, I used to catch them when I was younger, at my parent's house."

My eyes widened as I felt my blood drain from my face. For some reason, that comment gave me chills. Might be for being part bat, but even if I wasn't, how she said it...freaked me out. She turned away from me and started lecturing. I didn't realize I had been holding my breath and exhaled.

A paper ball hit me from the back of my beanie. I turned and looked to see who threw it. The Joker kid was looking away from me, but had that weird smirk on his face. Mirror was busy filing her nails. I turned back to look at the paper ball. I smoothed the crumpled up ball and found a crude drawing of the teacher feasting on a bat in her clawed hands. Red marker lines represented the blood. On the top, it said Teacher's Pet. The bat had an arrow pointing at it, with the words You, written above. I sighed and stuffed the paper in my pocket before Miss T. saw it.

This was gonna be a long day...

...

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A/N: Hey guys. Thanks for reading my fanfic, hope you guys are enjoying it so far. The bat conversation was a real conversation I had in Sophomore year of high school with an English substitute teacher. To this day, what she said still freaks me out.


	7. Chapter 6: Hunter

Chapter 6: Hunter

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Throughout the day I went from classroom to classroom. I kept my sunglasses on whenever I went outside, and took them off when I was inside the classroom. The bright lights burned my eyes a little bit, but I didn't want kids thinking I was "too cool" or something and was asking to get beaten up.

The first day for every class was just getting to know the teacher and the kids in the class. The one motor bike kid was in my math class. His name was Kennith. He was six feet tall and had short black hair. He kept whispering to his friends in the back and being annoying. I could hear everything that they were saying. Mostly talking about what they did over the summer and who they banged from the school etc. One of the kids was lying when he said he banged six girls over the summer. I'm sure he was mostly being a lazy ass, eating salty chips and playing that new weird blocky game called Minecraft.

The girl who had been drawing dragons in my English class was in my math class too. Her name was Quin MacKraken. She preferred Quinny. She was a bit strange. I had tried giving her a compliment on her dragon drawings, she responded by turning to me and saying: "Western Dragons are known for living up in the mountains and eating mountain goats. I saw one eat a baby once." I stayed away from her after that.

Lunchtime was me just sitting alone. No one came up and tried being friends with me. I kind of wished someone did since I wasn't used to this school. Everyone already had friends and just glomped onto those friends. I didn't want to be the weird kid, just going up to groups and asking to join. I sat under a tree, just observing the kids as they ate and socialized.

I had been gone a whole summer. This sudden change of pace was weird to me. It felt actually nice. I wasn't needing to worry about aliens attacking. Not being thrown across acres of trees or being rammed into a building. My bruises can finally heal. My worries were now Math and Science since I sucked at those subjects.

The bell rang. I got up and threw my trash away before heading towards the next class.

My last class of the day was an art class, which made me very happy. I wondered if Monger saw my drawings and figured I wanted to be an artist. I'm glad I got an art class. The teacher was very nice and he gave us an assignment to work on. We had to draw our shoes, but with a different design on them. We literally had to take off our shoes and draw them. He showed us examples and I was immediately inspired. I drew my black and white sneaker to have tattered bat wings and sharp teeth where the toes went.

My teacher came up and looked over my shoulder. "Teeth? Dang. Do your shoes bite?" He asked. I blushed and nodded. He smirked and nodded his head. "I like it. Never seen anyone draw their shoes with teeth before," he said before looking at the other students' works. I took a deep breath and exhaled. The art class was the only class I felt better in.

The beginning of the day for me was not so good. I had a rough time figuring out where my classes were since I wasn't used to this school, I kept looking around for Hunter, and I was paranoid about thinking that John was suddenly going to show up in front of me...or be one of my teachers. That would have been weird. During the time in my new art class, I felt...normal. I felt calm. I wasn't a teen monster. I wasn't on a solo mission. I was just a normal teen trying to get through high school.

I was somewhat upset when the bell rang, indicating the first day of school was over. I wanted to just draw the rest of the day. I didn't want to go back to the base. I wanted to stay. I must have sounded weird saying that, but, it was the truth. I wanted to stay in this school. I wanted to continue pretending that I was normal. Doing normal teen things.

I was the last kid out of the class as I turned my assignment in. I placed my sunglasses on and walked out with all the other kids. Students shuffled and bolted out of classrooms, laughing and talking with friends. I caught snippets of conversations as I walked across the quad and out of the gates. Kids rode on bikes and skateboards past me.

I looked around seeing if there were any glimpses of John anywhere being all creepy. He wasn't around. I was starting to hope that John was officially gone and the photos were just a way for me to just go to school. I was starting to think that was the case. I didn't like being lied to by Monger, but he did give me back my life in some way. I just needed my family back and I'd be happy.

"Dude! Did you hear what happened at the National park yesterday?" a kid asked his friend a couple feet behind me. "Oh yeah, there was a fire and people had to be evacuated, nothing new," said the other. The first kid disagreed. "I heard that the government was involved I'm sure it was aliens or something."

"Aliens? Now you are starting to sound like that Hunter kid."

"_Pfffttt_. That Hunter kid _IS_ an alien!"

The two laughed and walked past me.

Not a lot of kids talked about what happened at the National forest. Some said that nothing interesting happened around here, so I guess they didn't really believe that it was an alien that crashed landed and us monsters having to deal with it. I wonder if anyone believed it really was aliens, or even saw us. Would anyone believe? Would anyone be ready for us monsters?

I sat down on the bench and waited for Patrick to come and pick me up. Yellow wildflowers blew gently in the warm breeze around the legs of the worn bench. It was a hot afternoon. I could feel the make up starting to melt on my face. I reached behind my head and unzipped my backpack, rubbing my wings. My wings were sore being stuck in the backpack. Any time I needed to use the bathroom or "use the bathroom" I went to a secluded place to stretch my wings out.

"May I sit with you?" asked a voice, snapping me from my thoughts. I looked up. My eyes widened behind my sunglasses. It was Hunter. Before I could respond, he sat down awkwardly next to me on the bench. "I usually sit here and wait for my mom to pick me up on Mondays and Wednesdays," he said to me. I still didn't say anything, just listening to my heartbeat and the blood rushing in my ears.

"My name is Hunter by the way," he said. I remembered to breathe and said my real name by accident. I coughed and quickly said my fake name, trying to cover up what I said. He gave me weird look before shrugging and saying he liked the first name I said, making me blush.

He sat there on the bench, talking to me. He practically told his whole life story to me. His name was Hunter Thorson, he was seventeen years old, and he's an only child. He was a total geek. He knew all the names of the Greek gods and goddesses and their backstories. He loved playing video games, mainly Batman: Arkham Asylum and Assassins Creed. His dad worked in taxes, his mom is a doctor. I didn't really care, but he was really wanting to talk to me. I guess he didn't have any friends.

He said they had to move recently because his dad lost his job. His dad had worked for a business pitching ideas to help the company or something. His dad worked really long shifts and late nights so he rarely saw his dad. Same with his mom, but she would come home late for dinner on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and they would watch documentaries on aliens.

Hunter's main hobby was into looking for cryptids. For his birthday, he got a car when he finally got his license. Since then, he's been driving around the town looking for cryptids. Him going on about cryptids somewhat interested me. I was into cryptids for a while. My favorite was the Mothman. Hunters favorites were Bigfoot and aliens.

"I went to the town's popular National Park over the summer. There were rumors about a UFO sighting that crashed in it and I wanted to see it first hand. Everyone was leaving, but I hid behind trees and in a hollowed out log for a while till the coast was clear," he said.

My heart was beating heavily in my chest. "Oh," was all I could say. This was it.

Hunter looked around before pulling out a folder from his backpack. His backpack was black and green and had a Cryptozoologist patch, as well as a UFO patch.

"This is top secret. You can't tell this to anyone. Ok?" he said. I stared at the folder.

"What's in there?"

"I can't show you until I know I can trust you."

I stared at him. He was acting like an elementary school kid. I sighed and nodded my head, playing along. "You can trust me," I lied. He smiled at me and opened the folder. "I found a UFO craft! It looked like it had crashed into the lake," he said as a ton of eight by ten photos spilled across his lap.

"But this is nothing compared to what I saw after!" he said excitedly as he pulled out a couple photos from the bottom and showed me. I felt the blood drain from my face. If I could blanch even more I would've. Right there, on twelve eight by ten colored photos, were images of me. Some were blurry, but you could make out what it was. Me. My paper white skin, my light brown ears and wings. If Hunter saw what my eyes looked like he would've been over the top geek excited.

"I saw this bat girl!" he said. I didn't say anything as I stared at my pictures. The blurry ones reminded me of the famous bigfoot picture. Hunter was very proud of his photos of me. Oh if only he knew. I was very scared that Hunter was going to take these pictures to the newspaper company and make money off of them. I would become a headline the next morning. Weird Bat Monster In National Park. I wanted to rip up every single photo. But I didn't. I just stared at them.

"What are you going to do with these photos?" I asked. Hunter smirked. "I've been trying to submit photos to the local newspaper, but they keep denying my findings." That gave me a little bit of relief. He must be known by the town as The Kid Who Cried Monster or something, seeing everything as a monster and taking pictures or reporting to the authorities, only for it to be a false alarm. Hunter slapped the photo he took of me in mid flight through the trees. "Once they see these beauties, they will have to believe me!" he said excitedly.

I gave him a half smile.

He looked at me and smiled. "I'm happy I can trust you. I've never had a female friend before...also a pretty one," he added under his breath, and of course, I heard it. I blushed and looked away. Shit. He liked me. I had mixed feelings. I mean...he was kind of cute, and he liked cryptids, but he was kind of annoying.

The black Nissan came rolling up. I sighed with relief and got up. "That's my ride, I'll see you later," I said as I quickly walked to the car and opened the door. I heard Hunter quickly get up and walk after me. "W-wait! c-could I...um..." he went quiet. I hesitated and turned. "What?" I asked.

"Could I give you my number? S-so we can text each other?" he asked. I felt my heart skip a beat. I've never had a guy ask to exchange numbers before.

"Um...I don't have a phone," I said, which was the truth, I didn't have my phone anymore and Monger never thought of giving me one. Hunter's face looked crestfallen.

"Oh...well...um. Could I give you my email?" He asked. I hesitated.

"Um...I don't have an email." Hunter's sad face changed to confusion.

"You don't have an email?" He asked.

"Uh...well. I do. I just don't have a computer."

"How do you have an email but not a computer?"

"Uh...um...for school. Had to get one...I check my emails when I'm here at school...my parents...are against computers," I lied. Hunter nodded. "Oh, ok," he said, finally giving up. I'm sure he thought I was turning him down harshly. Feeling bad, I told him that I was asking for a computer for my birthday. He seemed somewhat happy to hear that. With that, I said goodbye to Hunter and jumped into the car, pulling the door closed behind me.

"That could've gone worse," Patrick said as he drove us away. I sighed and slumped in the backseat. "I'm so embarrassed," I admitted. Patrick smirked and shrugged. "First days are always the hardest," he said. I looked out the window and watched the trees and houses go by.


	8. Chapter 7: Teen Monster Problems

Chapter 7: Teen Monster Problems

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...

When I got back to the base, my friends greeted me when I got out of the car. "Hey Bat! How was your first day?" asked Susan as she lightly put her huge fingers around my shoulders as her way of giving me a hug.

"It was allright I guess," I said. When Susan let go, I shrugged off my backpack, letting my wings unfurl and stretch out. B.O.B. attacked me by giving me a hug.

"You're back! I knew you couldn't leave forever!" he said happily and hugged me tighter. I held my breath as I started to sink into the blue gel. Doc rubbed his head and sighed at what B.O.B. said.

I guess while I was gone, Doc was trying to explain to B.O.B. that I was going to be going to school from now on till I graduated, but B.O.B. thought I had decided to leave forever.

Then, after suffocating and being upchucked, I slowly got up and wiped the goo off me.  
"What happened at school?" asked Link as he watched me wipe the goo off. I shrugged.

"Oh you know, made some enemies, some teachers creep me out, and I guess I made a friend," I said as I took off my beanie, causing my ears to spring up. Susan smiled happily. "Aww that's so nice! What's her name?" she asked.

"His name is Hunter," I responded.

"A boy? You have a friend?" asked Doc.

"Better yet! Batsy has a boyfriend!" said Link laughing.

I turned red from anger and embarrassment.

"Stop it, Fishstick! I don't have a boyfriend!" I snapped at Link, but Link kept laughing. "Batsy and Hunter sitting in a tree…" he started to sing and then laughed again.

My whole face turned red. I turned away, pretending that I was too occupied with the blue gel on my clothes that was starting to congeal. Doc and Susan gave Link a glare before asking other questions about how my classes were. I turned back around and told them about my day. I even told them about Hunter, but not about the photos.

Doc was concerned about me having a male as a friend, but Susan thought it was very cute. Doc shook his head. "Just be careful, Bat. Boys can be very misleading." I gave him a confused look.

"What's that supposed to mean? I don't like Hunter! He likes aliens," I said. Link snorted. "Kid needs to find a better interest. Monsters are way cooler. Have you told him that you are a monster?" He asked. Doc huffed at the hybrid.

"Bat isn't supposed to reveal to anyone what she is, Link! You know that!" Doc snapped. Link ignored the bug scientist and continued looking at me.

"Also made some enemies you said? What did you do to piss them off?" He asked. I shrugged. "Existed?" He laughed. "You dont need to worry about them, you can easily kick their asses," he said. Then he ruffled my hair. Doc glared at him.

"Language, Link" Doc hissed. Link rolled his eyes. "She's seventeen years old, Doc. She's not a baby," the hybrid said. Doc continued to glare at him. "Still. Be a gentleman around a young lady, Link," he said sharply. Link ignored him.

After that we all decided to head inside.

I went to go to my bathroom to wash off all the blue gel and makeup off me. I took a long shower. Afterwards, I changed into clean clothes and continued taking off the rest of the tan make up from my face. Took a while until I could see my true white skin again. After watching all the tan, human skin colored makeup swirl down the drain, I wiped my face with a towel, then walked out of my room to Link's room.

I could hear him lifting weights in his room. I knocked on his door. Minutes later he opened it. "Yeah? Oh. Hey Belfry. How's it going?" He asked. I took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to calm down my racing heart and asked him if I could still work out with him. He shrugged and said I could. He was ok with me using his equipment. I told him how I didn't have P.E. since it required taking off my backpack.

Link smirked. "So what? I'm sure you can take everyone down in P.E. Fly circles around them! Scream at them and knock them on their asses!" He realized that he cursed in front of me and quickly hovered his hand over his mouth. "Oops, I mean..." then he straightened up, and slicked back his head fin. Then he started mocking as a gentleman and said in a bad British accent:

"Pardon my rudeness. I meant to say...Knock them on their behinds." I couldn't help but laugh. Link grinned, revealing his sharp pointy teeth and did a mock bow. "Thank you, Miss Bat." I clapped.

He straightened back up and chuckled. "I dearly wish I could see the looks on that Hunter kid's face when you tell him you're a monster."

"I can't reveal my monster self to anybody," I reminded him.

"I'm sure the government can cover it up. They have to have their own memory wipe-" Link stopped when he realized what he was saying. "Oh...sorry. I forgot," he said rubbing the back of his head. He was quiet for a moment before asking what classes I had. I told him my schedule. Link smiled when he saw me talking about how I was so happy in taking an art class. I went on and on about it. Link grinned.

"That's great. I'm glad you found a class you like," he said. I nodded my head happily. Then Link sighed and leaned against the side of the huge door frame; crossing his muscular arms over his broad chest.

"Sucks you have to go to school, wont be able to fight aliens with us for two whole years," he added. I blinked. "What are you talking about? I'll still be able to fight aliens," I said. Link gave me a confused look and straightened up.

"Will you have time to fight aliens? You'll be in class if the alien tracker goes off. Also isn't there a thing called homework you have to do as well? he asked. I told him I could fight during the weekends and holidays. No school. No homework. No problem. Link shook his head, still not convinced.

"You might have to talk to Monger about that," he said.

I hesitated before nodding. "Yeah, I'll do that," I said.

We stood there in silence for a moment. Link rubbed the back of his head. "Anything else you want to tell me?" He asked, trying to break the awkward silence. I blushed. "Um..." I started. There was a couple things i wanted to tell him, but was too embarrassed to admit.

I also wanted to tell someone about what happened with Hunter and the photos. I wasn't sure about telling Link. I wanted to tell him, but wasn't sure if he would tell the others. I still had no idea what would happen to me or Hunter or even me going to school. I didn't want to become a prisoner again. Not go to school, not fight aliens. Never see anyone again. It was a rising fear that was happening inside me.

"I...n-nevermind..." I finally said. Link nodded. "Ok. See ya later Batsy," he said as he walked back into his room, pushing the button and causing the huge door to come down. My ears went down as I sighed, staring at Link's closed door. I so badly wanted to tell that was on my mind. But something inside me was too scared and embarrassed to do so. Maybe...maybe another time...

I sighed one last time, before lowering my head and walked back to my room. My wings dragging behind me across the cold floor...

...

After dinner, Susan asked if we all wanted to watch a movie. I had already contacted Monger to talk to him. He told me to wait. Apparently he was in a meeting. I decided to wait till he was free and went to go watch a movie with my friends.

We decided to watch the movie where Butterflyasaurous and Susan could watch. Susan sat at the table, B watched through her window and the rest of us watched on a couch placed on the surface of the huge table.

We were watching The Invisible Man.

"Oh! I didn't know the Invisible Man was in a movie!" blurted B.O.B.

"Invisible Man?" I asked and turned to Doc, Link, and Susan.

Susan looked at Doc and Link as well, I guess she wasn't told about an Invisible Man. Doc coughed into his fist. "Oh, well…you see…" started Doc rubbing his neck nervously. Link spoke up for them. "We had an Invisible Man here with us when we were in prison," said Link. My eyes widened in surprise. "Really?" I asked. Link nodded. "Yup."

"And then he escaped!" said B.O.B. happily, "and now he is in a movie!"

Doc and Link exchanged nervous glances.

"Uh…sure B.O.B." said Link.

Then Doc whispered in my bat ear, "He died of a heart attack twenty five years ago." I gasped and looked at nodded their heads sadly. I looked over to Susan who gave me a concerned look. I gave her a sad shake of the head. She seemed to understand and nodded.

It was sad they couldn't bring themselves to tell B.O.B… well, maybe it is better if he didn't know. I turned and looked at B.O.B. who was cheering, clapping, and laughing every time the Invisible Man did something crazy. He nudged Link while pointing at the screen. "Classic Invisible Man. He's amazing!" Link just gave him a wide fake grin and nodded. I slowly turned my head and continued watching the movie.

We were halfway through the movie when Monger came up on the table with his jetpack. "Sorry if I'm interrupting anything," he started. Doc paused the movie. Susan smiled. "Not at all Monger, want to watch the movie with us?" asked Susan.

"No, not now, I need to speak with Bat for a minute," said Monger.

My friends exchanged confused glances. I silently got up and walked along the table. When we got to the edge, Monger took off on his jetpack. I spread my wings out and glided after him. We flew off the huge table and to somewhere where the others couldn't hear us.

"Allright, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"I was wondering if I'll still be able to fight aliens," I said. Monger narrowed his eyes a little. "Fight aliens?" He asked. I hesitated, but then he answered for me. "I told you the government sees you as a minor, and that you need to finish school. You can't fight aliens until you graduate."

"But...what about weekends and holidays? I wont have homework on those days and I can fight when the alien tracker goes off-" I started. Monger shook his head. "No can do. You need to focus on school. I cant have you falling behind in classes."

"I wont fall behind in my classes."

"Bat..."

I looked up at him with my ears pointed toward him. "Please Monger." Monger shook his head. "I can't, Bat. I'm sorry," he said. My ears went down. We were quiet for a moment before Monger spoke again. "I thought you would be happy going back to a normal life," he said.

I was. I really was. But, I also wanted to still fight aliens. I have never felt so alive. It was a thrilling feeling. I finally felt like I belonged. I didn't answer him. Monger sighed. "I was able to at least get you to go to a normal high school and not be cooped up in the base."

I still didn't answer.

Monger gave me a pat on my shoulder. "It's only two years, Bat. You'll be graduating in no time." I nodded slightly. Monger straightened up. "Speaking of which...any reports on John?" He asked. I silently shook my head. Monger nodded.

"Allright. Any other questions you want to ask me?"

"Can you get the government to let me still fight aliens?" I asked him.

Monger sighed and turned away. "Have a good night, Bat." With that he activated his jet pack and flew away.


	9. Chapter 8: Strange Things

**A/N: Thank you, Justsomeguy16! I really appreciate the review! I'm glad you enjoyed the first story! I hope this one will be just as good or better. I'll hopefully reveal all soon. Thank you again! **

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Chapter 8: Strange Things

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Strange things, more strange than usual, began to happen. It first started with a nightmare. Around midnight I had the nightmare. It was another John nightmare, but this John nightmare was different. John and I were in front of each other. The scene was just darkness, I couldn't see what we were in. He says something I couldn't hear, then pulls out a gun. It's not a memory erase gun. He aims it at my chest. Something pushes him, the gun still goes off and I feel a searing pain hit my left arm.

I wake up in immense pain. I grip my arm where I felt the pain. There was no bullet. No shattered bone. I was ok. Mentally, not so much. Tears came down my face. It felt so real. It took me a while to go back to sleep. I kept thinking about that nightmare over and over. It didn't feel like a forgotten memory, like the constant dreams I had when I first became a monster. It wasn't a regular John nightmare. This was different. I didn't know what it was but it was...strange. Eventually my brain stopped thinking about the nightmare and I was able to fall into a deep sleep.

...

The next day, I woke up to the sound of the alien alarm going off. I don't know what to call it. It's a different sound than the alien tracker alarm for Alien Invasions. This one is for a different reason. I instinctively jump out of bed and started flying to it. The long hallway was flashing red as I flew down the colossal corridor. Everyone's footsteps thundered along the cold floors. I was the last one to get to the room.

Susan was already sitting at the giant table and Butterflyausaurous eyeing everyone through the window. Link, Doc and B.O.B. were already standing on the surface of the table activating the computers, thus stopping the red lights and the loud beeping sounds. Once I get there, everyone stared down at me in puzzlement.

"Um, Bat? Aren't you supposed to be getting ready for school?" Asked Susan. "Nice PJs," Link added. I stared down at my pjs of little chibi blue and green monsters all over them. Since I lost everything in my room, Monger has made up for it by replacing everything. Not accurately though since I used to own Nightmare before Christmas pajamas. These pajamas looked like something a ten year old would wear.

Embarassed, I muttered a sorry and started turning away. Just as I was about to jump off the table, I heard them mention the Mothman. I quickly spun around, my eyes wide in shock. "Mothman? You guys are going to go see the Mothman?!" I asked a little too loudly. The monsters looked over to me. Doc nodded and spoke for me.

"There's been reports that he has been seen again. Susan and Link volunteered to go investigate." I couldn't believe it. Of all the days for us to be able to possibly meet The Mothman, it had to be during the time I needed to finish school. I begged for them to let me go. I tried every excuse I could think of so I could go.

Doc shook his head. "I'm sorry, Bat. We all promised Monger that we wouldn't sneak you on board on any alien invasions or paranormal investigations." My jaw dropped. I looked over to the other monsters. Everyone turned their heads away from me...except B.O.B., who just smiled his goofy smile at me and waved.

"Hi, Bat," he said.

I huffed angrily. My own friends turned against me too. I couldn't believe it. I stormed off the table and walked all the way back to my room.

"She seems angry," I heard B.O.B. say.

"She will get over it," Link replied.

* * *

...

Patrick noticed I was upset when I came up to the car. I slid into the car and slammed the car door loudly behind me. Patrick didn't say anything till we were on the road. "Something the matter, Bat?" He asked me, looking at the rearview mirror to me as I sat, stewing angrily in the back seat. I glared out the window. I heard a roar and looked up.

Butterflyasaurous was flying away from the base. Through my sunglasses I could see Link and Susan on her back. Tears came to my eyes as I turned away from the window to wipe them, careful not to ruin my normal human skin colored makeup.

"No..." I lied to Patrick.

Patrick gave me a look of sympathy. "I have a teenage daughter at home. I know when something is troubling her." I stared down at the empty seat next to me. "...I can't do paranormal investigations or fight aliens till I finish school..." I said. Packtrick sighed.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"I was hoping that I could still fight them, maybe over the weekends or something...but no...and today the alarm went off and they are saying it's about the Mothman! The Mothman! I am a huge mothman fan and I wanted to go to West Virginia to go and hopefully to see him, but my own friends are on Monger's side and wont let me be excused from school to go meet him!" I ranted to the driver.

I felt bad ranting to Patrick, but at the same time, it felt good blowing off some steam. I felt that I needed it after all that has happened to me. Patrick listened and was very nice. He nodded and didn't say a thing. Once I was done I sank back into my seat

"Feel better?" He asked.

"Yeah...kind of," I said.

"I understand your frustration, Bat. Sometimes life isn't fair. Things happen and you miss out. But don't let it get to you. Don't let it ruin your day."

Patrick stopped the car at the place where the bench with all the wildflowers around it was. I thanked him and got out of the car. "Have a good day, Bat!" He called from the car. He waved to me from the window as he pulled away. I waved back and watched the car till it was out of sight. Taking a deep breath, I turned to the school and exhaled. Patrick's words stayed in my brain as I walked to the school. Stay positive, I thought, walking along the chain linked fence that bordered the overly watered grassy green fields.

As I did, I thought I saw something zip near me. I turned and looked around. I heard a rustling of trees above me. A black crow. It sat on the branch. I stared at it for a moment. It kept its head turned away from me. I found it strange. I shook my head and kept walking.

Just then I heard a different noise. It came from amongst the pine trees in a neighbor's front yard across the street. I stopped to look. Nothing. Must have been my imagination. As I turned and continued walking, I couldn't push away the strange feeling that someone was watching me...

...

Fifteen minutes into my first period class, I got called up to the office to meet with my counselor and the principal. They said they had talked to my "uncle" on the phone, and they were seeing if I was enjoying my time here at the high school. I said it was allright. I had to sign some papers and get my guardian to sign the rest to officially have me be in the school for the next two years.

"We were hoping to meet you yesterday, but we weren't sure if you made it. We were hoping your uncle told you to come to the office before the school started," said my counselor as I got up from the chair.

"Yeah, well...my great uncle Monger seems to forget to tell me things these days," I said with attitude. With that I left and started walking back to my class. I muttered angrily to myself about Monger being a horrible guardian and wishing I wasn't dealing with this. As I was, the weird feeling came back, causing me to stop muttering.

I stopped in my tracks and looked around. No one was there. My bat ears flicked inside the black beanie I wore. The sounds were slightly muffled so I wasn't going to be able to hear a lot. I gave up and decided to ignore it.

I saw a golf cart drive by with a man driving it, and a boy on the back. My old school had golf carts, since the school was so big, staff would drive them around to get from one place to another, and the boy was on the back so he could get to his class in no time.

I watched the golf cart till it was out of sight. One or two students were seen taking their time going to the bathrooms or hanging at their locker, but other then that, the school was deserted. Twenty feet from me was the main entrance and exit of the school. Usually there was a security guy there to check everyone's school ID cards. I didn't have my ID card so I wasn't allowed to go outside the school. Fortunately, there was no security guy. I stared at the open gates ahead of me. Barely anyone around. I could just...

I turned away and slowly walked back to my first class. No...no point anyway. Link, Susan and Butterfly were halfway to West Virginia by now. No point in ditching. I heard shuffling behind me. I spun around and found a kid staring at me. I took a step back, concerned.

The kid was possibly a senior. He was tall and had curly dark brown hair, a sleeveless grey shirt, longsleeved black shirt underneath. Black and white sneakers and black pants. He also wore fingerless black gloves like I did, and black sunglasses. He nodded his head. "Nice to see you again," he said. It took me a moment to realize who I was talking to, until I realized that the kid looked like a younger version of The Scientist.

October.

I felt the blood drain from my face and my jaw drop. "October...what are you...how are you...?" I stumbled over my words. October looked around for a second before placing his gloved hands into his pockets.

"I've stayed around. Been flying around this place for a while," he said. My mind went to the birds I had been seeing around recently. The birds at the National forest, the crow from this morning. He has been watching me.

"Mostly making sure you are safe..." he said. Then he quickly added, "I'm sure you know John is alive and is around," he said. I nodded my head. "I'm here for school, but I'm also trying to find him," I told him. I gave him a brief update on what I knew and what has been going on so far. I wanted to believe I could trust October. Even though he accused me of being John's mindless puppet, he helped me take down John the first time, and hated John's guts as much as I did. After I was done, the disguised alien nodded.

"I see."

I got the feeling that he didn't understand, but was pretending he did. "Do you know of John's whereabouts?" I asked him. October nodded. "I saw him a couple times here as well. I too have been trying to hunt down John. He has been very careful hiding himself and not being followed. I have been watching this place as one of your flying creatures. I spotted you just yesterday attending this place filled with young humanlings-"

"Teenagers," I corrected him.

"Teen...agers," he tried using the word. "He has been disappearing here and there several times. Mainly around here. Around this facility-"

"Campus," I corrected him again. He exhaled and gave me a look. I went quiet and allowed him to continue. "I think he has another secret place around here. Possibly in one of these buildings. Keep watch for him, Exper..." he stopped himself before he called me Experiment Six. The horrible thing John calls me.

"I apologize...I don't recall ever saying your name," he realized. As long as I had known him. I don't think he ever had. "You can just call me by my monster name. Bat," I told him. October nodded. "Allright...I think I remember you telling me your real name when we first met," he added. I felt my blood run cold. When we were John's prisoners. I don't remember that at all. Only the night we ran away. I got hit by John's memory erase gun, causing me to forget alot of how I became a monster...but I assume my nightmares are what help fill the blanks. I saw October's eyes change behind his sunglasses.

"I don't remember unfortunately...but if you prefer Bat, I can call you that," he said. I nodded, then stared at his attire before realizing he copied my look. The black fingerless gloves, the grey sleeveless shirt and long sleeved black shirt. I pointed it out to him.

"So...copying my look?" I asked him. He looked down, realizing before looking back up to me. "You are the first young humanling I had encountered here on earth. I thought you all wore clothes like this," he admitted. I smiled and shook my head. "Unfortunately, no. I'm the only one who wears that look," I said. October shrugged. "I think it looks good." I blushed and thanked him. His hair color changed from black to blue then back to dark brown again.

"Also, I'd be careful flying around here at night. I don't want John to know you are coming here," he said. I blinked. "Flying? I haven't been flying around here," I said. October gave me this strange look which I assumed was suspicion. He pointed his fingerless gloved hand at me.

"I saw you last night. You flew by me. I recognized your pale skin and wings. Our eyes and connection." He said. I didn't understand what he meant by that, but I assumed since we shared the same DNA, he could feel that same similarity we both shared. He pulled his arm back and pocketed it. For a moment I saw it shape shift into an octopus tentacle before it turned back into a human hand.

"Just be careful, young Bat. I'll be flying around as a Quardxifyl." (or whatever word that was close to that spelling. Most likely his alien word for I'm guessing crow.) I was about to ask him more about how he even saw me last night, when I knew I was at the base asleep, when the bell rang.

Kids poured out of classrooms and began walking and running to their next classes. October stared at me from where he stood. A group of kids walked between where we were standing. When the kids passed by, he was gone.

I heard the sound of flapping wings over my head. When I looked up, I saw a flash of a black bird fly through the pine tree branches, and disappear into the shadows.

...


	10. Chapter 9: Fight

...

Chapter 9: Fight

...

* * *

...

Classes went by real slow. I mostly doodled in my sketchbook. I was in my math class learning about some kind of math that would never help me in life. Seriously why were we learning this stuff? I'd rather learn how to do taxes or be in West Virginia meeting the Mothman. I was doodling the Mothman how I imagined him to be. I was still upset I wasn't able to go. This mission sucked. I should've said No to Monger's "secret solo mission," of course that wouldn't matter.

The bell rang for break. I got up and unzipped my backpack without taking it off and placed the sketchbook in the pocket that didn't have my wings folded up in it. A couple of my teachers were irritated by the way I never took off my backpack and beanie. They thought I was "too cool for school." Thankfully I had "excuses" as to why I had to wear my backpack and beanie, courtesy of Monger. Surprisingly, the teachers don't buy it and still nag me to take them off.

I walked out before my math teacher told me the same thing. I walked along the path and sat down at a table under a pink blossom tree. Hunter came by moments later and sat down across from me.

Hunter immediately asked me why it took me so long to get back to our first class. I lied by telling him that there was a lot of paperwork to fill out at the office. He bought it and started talking nonstop about aliens and cryptids. I mainly just ignored him as he started talking about the weird occurrences that have been going on around here and in Modesto, California. In some cases I wanted to show him my bat wings, just to see his reaction. It would be funny to see the look on his face. I sighed as he continued talking.

"...Also do you find it weird that it seems to happen around here? I was able to take decent pictures too. I have so much proof and no one seems to believe me. I never show my parents this because they don't think being a cryptozoologist is a real job. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to hunt down bigfoot or find a real alien and go on their ship and talk about the universe...?"

To get away from this conversation? Yes.

He opened his folders with the pictures of me in them and stared down at them. "Do you think she's an alien?" He asked. I broke out of my thoughts. I had mostly drowned him out. I had been thinking about my conversation with October.

"What?" I asked.

"The bat girl. Do you think shes an alien?" He asked. I paused. Should I? Do I dare? I mean, it wouldn't hurt. He would just assume I'm giving a hypothesis. Great, now I was starting to sound like Doc. Next I'll be using words like Uranium and Bionuclear reactor in my sentences.

"Uh...maybe? I dont know. Why do you think she would be an alien? She has bat wings and white skin...like a vampire. Looks more like part vampire then part alien," I said.

He shrugged. "I don't know. I guess because she was near the ufo. I also assumed she could be an alien that can shape shift. I read about superior beings being able to shape shift into different forms, taking on animal or human shapes to blend into their environment. It also said how the aliens would never reveal their true form since it'll cause anyone to see it go mad...you know, like Cthulhu?" he said.

I couldn't help but to think back to when I saw October's true form. It terrified me so much. Was I going to go mad? How did one go mad? I didn't feel any different. His form was truly terrifying. I wouldn't want to see it again. Unless it wasn't his true form? No...no...it was. It was his true form. I wonder if John saw it. Did he go crazy?

...I wonder if I could shape shift.

The bell rang, indicating break was over. Hunter got up and carefully placed his photos back into his backpack. "I'll see you later," he said giving me a smile and a wave. I waved back and walked in the opposite direction of Hunter and went on my way to my next class.

I had geography

My geography teacher was skinny and wore a black long sleeved shirt and black jeans. He had really short hair, and had pale face, which looked sunken, in and looked kind of like a skeleton. I slowly walked to the back. Someone tried to trip me in the process but I just stumbled a bit and kept walking. My ears flicked inside my black beanie when the teacher started yelling at the kid who tripped me.

"Jason! I saw that! One more time and I'll make the school suspend you!" snapped the teacher. The Joker kid grinned evilly at me. I looked away from the kid. I remembered him. He was one of the boys in Mirror's group. Today, his green hair was all messy. He wore a different Joker shirt today. I wondered if that's all he owned were Joker shirts. Mainly Heath Ledger Joker shirts. This one was a close up of his face saying "Why So Serious?" I saw it just last year before I became a monster. I liked it. I dressed up as the Joker for Halloween.

The skeleton teacher looked down the rows and then noticed I was still wearing my backpack on.

"Is this a new fashion or something?" he asked me out loud. "I didn't say anything about it yesterday since it was first day, but I see you are still doing it." Everyone turned to me and started laughing. I sunk in my seat nervously. My face began to burn. Great. Here we go again.

"N-no," I stuttered.

"W-well, can you take it off?" the teacher mimicked me for stuttering. I narrowed my eyes. Man, this teacher woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Didn't have to insult me like that.

The class laughed harder.

"I don't really want to," I said.

"Do you want a detention?" he asked.

"No," I said.

"Then take it off," he said.

"I have a note as to why I need to keep it on," I said.

The class oohed.

The teacher rolled his eyes. "Yes, I am aware of your note. I believe in the "Dog ate my homework excuse," more then that excuse."

Damn this teacher.

So in the end I got detention and the teacher began teaching us about science crap. I didn't listen. The next class was worse. It was near the end of the period too. "Take your hat off!" My history teacher, Ms. S. snapped at me.

"I…I have a bad haircut," I thought at the top of my head. My history teacher scoffed, crossing her arms. "Well, I'm sure no one will laugh at it, right class?" she asked. Some kids said yes, others were either talking to their friends or secretly texting. I found out that Mirror was in my history class as well, and she sat right behind me!

She tried to take my beanie off but I quickly grabbed my hood and pulled it over so she wouldn't pull it off. Double protection. I turned and glared at her, but she just looked at me like I was the stupidest thing she has ever seen and popped her gum in my face.I turned back and saw Ms. S. glaring at me.

"I… have a… doctor's note, that says I can't take off my hood," I lied, hoping she will leave me alone.

Ms. S. raised an eyebrow. "Well then, let's see it," she said sternly with her arm extended out. I flinched. Then I slowly reached to the secret pocket and felt around for something that will help me out of this problem. Luck was on my side that period. The bell rang. I quickly ran out before Ms. S. said anything.

...

At lunchtime, I avoided Hunter and made my way around the school, somewhat familiarizing my environment. The school had a two story science building, brand new, and a cluster of small old buildings, which were the math buildings. The oldest building was the art building because, like all the other schools I had gone to, no one seemed to care about the arts.

I made my way around, making sure I didn't look too suspicious. As I walked, I thought back to October's information on how to find John. He was slinking around the school, but seemed to disappear whenever October spotted him. I looked around the school. It wasn't as big as I imagined.

It felt big when I first arrived. The trees around and in the school made it seem bigger, also it was alongside a steep hillside that threw me off. There was one building under construction so there was yellow tape around it saying: Do not cross. There were no workers, mostly out for lunch. I was somewhat hoping to find John there as a hobo eating out of the nearby trashcan near that building but I didn't. It took ten to fifteen minutes to walk around the school. Not including the fields. I decided to take a break.

I sat down at a bench under a weeping willow, pulled out my sketchbook and began to draw. It wasn't long before I heard a small group of footsteps coming my way. I stopped drawing and looked up to see Mirror and her goons coming towards me. Mirror stopped, causing her friends to stop. She had her hands on her hips.

"You are in our spot, freak."

Today, she wore striped green and black socks that went up to her knees. She wore a red and black plaid skirt and a black shirt that had retro colored monsters bleeding to death.

Her hair was pulled into two pigtails and had pink and blue streaks, her eyes were lined with black eyeliner and she popped her gum in front of me. Her friends looked at me in disgust. There were two boys and three girls. The Joker kid smirked behind Mirror. I sighed and resisted to roll my eyes.

"It doesn't have your name on it," I said, not getting up from my spot. The Joker kid snorted, then quickly went quiet when Mirror shot him a look.

Mirror glared at me through her black eyeliner. "You think you're funny?" She snapped. I shrugged. "Sometimes. Joker thinks I'm funny," I said, nodding to the Joker kid. The Joker kid adverted his eyes to the ground when Mirror shot him another look.

"Acid doesn't think you are funny," Mirror spoke for him. I blinked. Acid? I thought his name was Jason. These kids came up with the weirdest nicknames. Before I could react, Mirror stepped forward and shoved me. I gasped in surprise. I felt my wings shift on instinct, wanting to rip out of my backpack and stretch out. I could hear the backpack's seams ripping.

I fell back and my head hit the ground. I winced. It hurt a lot, but not enough for me to get a concussion or anything. I tried getting up, but the nameless boy grabbed me and chucked me away from where I was. I staggered and then fell to the ground again. My face was scratched and the tips of my fingers were raw with blood dripping. I slowly turned around and got up. The group was laughing at me. Some kids were watching. One kid was trying to start the "fight" chant, but it was halfhearted and died as soon as it started. My sunglasses were slightly crooked on my face.

I got up, anger boiling inside me

The nameless kid came at me again. I took a step back to avoid him. Joker grabbed my arm and twisted it. I stifled a scream. As much as I wanted to, I wasn't going to use my sonic scream, blow my cover and take a kid to the hospital. I pulled my arm forward with all my strength and stuck my leg out for him to trip over. Joker was a big guy so he didn't go down that easy. Dammit. Not being able to use my scream ability or my wings sucks.

I thankfully was able to twist out of his grasp. I couldn't risk getting in trouble...but on the other hand, I couldn't let my ass get beaten by a bunch of bullies. I could take these kids. I've fought an army of alien clones. These bullies were nothing in comparison.

Joker came at me again but this time I was ready. Thanks to Link, he helped teach me some moves; that I am starting to think he got from watching Karate movies. I was able to pin Joker down to the ground. The Joker kid stared up at me in surprise. I heard the other boy trying to sneak up behind me. I grabbed his arm and pulled it behind his back without looking. Mirror and the other girls gaped in shock. The group of kids around us got bigger. Everyone had their phones out and were taking pictures. I let go of the nameless kid and moved away from the Joker kid. The Joker kid got up and was still staring at me in shock. Mirror noticed and snarled. Jealous. She approached me, fist raised. I got ready.

Suddenly I saw a flash of black zip by me. Mirror started shrieking and flailing her arms above her head. A crow was attacking her. A crow with yellow eyes. I stared in surprise. Mirror moved away but October kept flapping his wings at her and cawing. Mirror's friends watched, dumbfounded. I couldnt help but to smile.

"Thanks, October," I whispered.

"Don't just stand there! Do something!" Mirror screamed at her goons. The Joker/Acid kid took a step forward. Right when he did, October took to the skies and flew away to the trees. They all stared in shock and confusion as to why the bird decided to attack. I couldn't help but to chuckle. The looks on their faces were priceless. Of course, that wasn't a good idea. The group turned to me in horror. I stopped laughing. Crap. I hope they didn't think I asked the bird to attack Mirror. I didn't want them to think I was a witch or something.

I decided to leave the scene. I pushed my way past a couple kids to get out of the circle. "Yeah! You better leave!" said Mirror and started cussing at me. I ignored it and walked away.

Then I heard a male voice, "Are you ok?"

I stopped and looked up. I was expecting October, but it was just Hunter.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said and started to walk away. But the boy followed me, which made me feel uncomfortable. I kept walking.

Hunter kept following me. "That was crazy! The way that bird swooped down and attacked Mirror!" The bell rang and I quickened my pace, moving through the crowds. I heard Hunter calling my fake name but I didn't stop till I was lost in the sea of teenagers.

...


	11. Chapter 10: Detention

Chapter 10: Detention

...

* * *

...

I was so happy to finally make it to my last period. My beloved art class. The place where I felt that I truly belonged.

The teacher wore a wrinkled light blue buttoned up shirt with a printed Pikachu on the right side. He wore wrinkled dark blue jeans and his wiry blonde hair stuck out in all directions, making him look more like a mad scientist.

"Good afternoon everyone. Last class of the day," he said. "Best class of the day," I said in a low voice as I passed by him. He smirked and nodded. "Exactly, best class of the day! Art!"

"Hey, what's that sticking out of your back pack?" Asked a kid from behind me. I looked over my shoulder. "What?" I asked, half expecting to see a "Kick Me" sign from Mirror taped to my backpack. I felt something reach in my backpack and touch my wings. My eyes widened and I quickly spun away from the kid. "What are you doing?!" I asked, trying not to raise my voice.

The kid pointed to my backpack. "You have a gaping hole in your backpack and theres a weird furry thing in there." he said. My eyes widened. Oh shit. Oh shit shit shit! My hands reached behind, squeezing my backpack and my wings. I blindly felt around till I found the hole. Part of my wing was sticking out.

I pinched the gaping hole closed with my fist and turned to the art teacher. "C-can I go to the restroom?" I stuttered, panicking.

"Yeah, sure. Take the Bathroom pass," the teacher said without really paying attention as he turned his head and walked away. I looked over to where the bathroom pass hung on a nail in the wall. It was a literal toilet seat, hand painted in a strange pattern. In swirly yellow letters, it said Bathroom pass Room 405. I winced.

The bathroom pass was heavy. I walked by two girls who most likely came from the bathroom. They whispered and giggled at me as they passed by. I heard everything they said. I finally made it to the bathroom and went into the biggest stall. I took off my backpack and my wings immediately opened up and stretched.

I turned my back pack over in my hands. Sure enough, there was a seven inch hole in my backpack. It had to have been during the fight with Mirror and her gang. Great. Just great. I didn't know what to do. I didn't have any way of sewing up my backpack or stuffing it. Maybe I could call Monger. He could bring me a new back pack or something.

I pulled out a small flip phone from the side pocket. Monger gave me this phone just yesterday, for emergencies only. It had Monger's cell phone in it. It wasnt anything special. It just called or texted and took shitty pictures. I pressed Monger's number and the phone began to ring.

"Hello?" Monger said.

"Hi, it's me, Bat," I said

"Hi. Is everything ok?"

"I...my backpack ripped," I responded. Not really wanting to tell him about the fight.

"Oh? How did that happen?"

"Um...must have been when I stretched my wings. A kid saw part of my wing poking out. The backpack is very small. I was hoping you could give me a bigger backpack? Please?" I asked.

"Did the kid figure out what your wing was?"

"No. He was just confused."

"Allright. I'll be there shortly," he said.

"Thank you...bye," I said

"Bye."

I closed the phone and took a huge sigh of relief. I decided to stay in the bathroom stall a little longer to stretch my wings. I rubbed the certain areas that were sore and did a few stretches. After that I slipped my wings back in and walked back to class. I came back and sat in the back.

Twenty five minutes later, my art teacher got a call on the class phone. He answered it. He responded with a few words, then turned his head to me and motioned me to come over. Puzzled, I got up and walked over to him. He placed the phone back on the receiver.

"You are wanted at the principal's office," he said. The class went quiet. I didn't see it as a bad thing. I assumed Monger was there with my new backpack. I left the classroom and made my way to the principal's office. The office was small with several file cabinets and accents of red here and there. When I got there, I found Monger and the principal talking. Mongers back was to me. I could see the principals frizzy black hair and her red blazer.

"-she's a good kid. She is never like this," I heard Monger say. Uh oh. The principal saw me and motioned me in. "Come in," she said, using my fake name. I shyly walked in. "Take a seat," she gestured to the two chairs in front of her desk. Monger remained standing. His hands clasped behind his back.

I sat in one of the chairs in front of the principal's desk. I stared down at my shoes. My shoes have gone through a lot. They were wearing out and had huge holes in the sides.

"Do you know why you are here?" Asked the principal. I hesitated. I already heard a snippet of their conversation. "...I think because of what happened during lunchtime?" I asked. The principal nodded. "You were seen taking down a kid bigger than you, and twisting a kid's arm behind his back," she said. I looked up at Monger, who narrowed his eyes down at me.

I looked away, my shoulders tensing up. The principal continued. "We know you are new here, but we don't allow that kind of behavior at this school-"

"I was just sitting at a bench and they came up to me and shoved me to the ground!" I defended myself. "It was five against one. I didn't start the fight!" I added. The principal sighed. "Regardless. Your actions harmed-"

"I got hurt!" I showed her my bruised arms and red fingers where it scraped the concrete ground. "I was not intending to hurt them. I was only defending myself."

The principal's dark eyes narrowed. "You shouldn't have fought back. You should've reported it to a teacher." I lowered my arms. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was being punished for being bullied.

"Mirror and her gang were the ones who started the fight. All because I was "sitting in their spot," Mirror and the Jok- I mean...Jason Gonzalez...I don't know the other kid's names," I tried one last time.

"Miss Henderson and Mr. Gonzalez are our top students at this school. They have the highest grades and their families have helped this school with funds towards our new science building and our recently being built new tech building."

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe it.

The principal continued. "I'm letting you off with a warning. If I see another photo or another report of you in a fight, I'm suspending you." She looked up at Monger who nodded his head silently. I got up and started walking towards the door.

"Oh and one more thing," said the principal. Monger and I turned around. The principal shuffled through her papers on her tidy desk. "It appears I have been getting a few complaints from your teachers about you wearing your backpack and beanie in class."

Monger took a step forward and started feeding her the same bullshit excuses I have been feeding my teachers. The principal nodded. "I see. Well, I'll try to have a meeting with them. It appears that her geography teacher gave her detention."

"Do I have to?" I asked her.

The principal thought for a minute. "For your beanie and backpack. No. For getting into a fight. Yes. It's only for an hour after school. You are to meet at the recycling center on the outskirts of the school." She showed me a map and pointed. It was near the new science building and the building under construction. "There, Mr. Schmidt will tell you what to do," she said.

With that, Monger and I left the principal's office. The bell had already rung and kids were already filing out of their classes. School had ended. Detention had begun.

Monger silently pulled out a triple extra large black and orange hoodie sweater. "I didn't have time to find a bigger backpack for you. Right after you called, the school called me about how you got into a fight with a bunch of kids," he said, eyeing me. I looked away. Thankfully I had my sunglasses on so he couldnt see my eyes. I thanked him for the sweater and changed in it in the bathroom. When I came out, the baggy sweater went all the way down to my knees. It was huge on me.

Monger walked with me to the Student Recycling center. It was a small version of what I'd imagine a junkyard to look like. Chain linked fence surrounding a big recycling machine that shredded paper, and mounds of paper stacked in cubes along the sides. There were already a few kids there waiting. Most likely they got detention too. I recognized a few kids. One was the motor bike kid, Kennith. The other was Hunter.

Hunter waved to me. I pretended not to see him. When we arrived, Mr. Schmidt came out of the small building. He was a heavy guy with a big stomach that stuck out far from his waist. He wore a buttoned up blue shirt and dirty jeans. He looked us over before telling us to walk single file into the building.

"We are going to have a talk when you get back," Monger muttered to me. I didn't respond. Monger left me in the hands of Mr. Schmidt. The small group of troublemakers and I walked single file up the ramp and into the building. The small classroom smelled like baloney and paper. Papers were tacked to the walls and rustled when we walked in. The place looked sad and grey. Nothing colorful or cheery was in this room. Mr. Schmidt made us sign a paper indicating we were having our detention, then handed us each a pair or rubber gloves, a trash bag, and a grabby thing to pull trash out of.

"You are to collect plastic bottles and cans all over the campus and come back once its 4:20," Mr. Schmidt said. Kennith snickered when Mr. Schmidt said 4:20, making a few other boys in the detention group laugh as well. I just rolled my eyes. With that, we were told to go and went our own separate ways. Well, tried to.

"Hey! Wait up!" Hunter called and caught up to me. I groaned quietly and slowed down. "Hey, Hunter," I said half-heartedly. "Such a coincidence that we both have detention together," I said. Hunter nodded. "Yeah! Isn't that great?"

"Oh yeah...yeah. Great," I said trying not to sound too sarcastic. Hunter smiled happily. His blonde hair blowing in the breeze. "How did you get detention?" he asked me. "The fight," I responde. "And yourself?" I asked him back as I used my claw tongs thing to grab a water bottle out of a trashcans put it in my bag.

"I was talking too much about how the government is actually a bunch of lizard people in disguise during my history class."

That would make a whole lot more sense.

"So, what is up with the orange question mark on your sweater?" asked Hunter as he started collecting his bottles.

"Oh, uh…it's…a band," I said, "The…Question Marks…" Man I was bad at lying.

I was amazed that he bought it.

"Cool!" he said enthusiastically.

...

Hunter and I spent our hour talking and collecting our bottles. Most of the trashcans were already gone through because Kennith and the others were seeing how fast they could collect bottles and cans and have the most before the hour was up. I'm guessing he did this a lot.

Hunter checked his watch. "It's almost time, want to start heading back?" We only collected about twelve bottles and three cans altogether. I nodded my head. The sun was very hot. I could feel my makeup melting. I tried staying in the shade as much as I could.

Kennith passed by us and lifted his full bag of bottles. "I win!" He said. I gave him a look. "It's not a competition," I told him. He smirked and pointed at me. "Hey, I saw you at lunchtime fighting Acid and The Gap kid.

The Gap kid? My god these nicknames.

Kennith gave me a smile full of crooked teeth. "You were badass." With that he left. I just rolled my eyes and continued walking. Hunter's heart was pounding in a weird way. "You were badass. Those moves..." he said. His heart beat faster as he turned away. I felt my face burn and looked away too.

Just as I did, I stopped when I thought I saw something move in the trees. I turned my head. Nothing was there. October? No. It didn't seem like October. It felt familiar for some reason. I couldnt put my finger on it. Too big to be a bird. Too small to be a bear. It just felt...familiar-

"You ok?" asked Hunter.

I nodded. "Yeah. Just thought I saw something," I said. Hunter looked over to the trees where I was looking. "Was it that crow again?" He asked. I shrugged. "I dont think so, it looked bigger," I said. Hunter thought for a moment. "Like Mothman? Or the Jersey devil? Did it have Bat wings? Maybe it was that Bat girl I saw!" He said. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Yeah. That bat girl. It could've been her," I said, trying to not sound sarcastic. Hunter didn't seem to notice as he pulled out a camera from his pocket. "Which way did you see her fly? I gotta take more pictures of her."

I'm standing right here, I thought. I had to keep myself from snickering. It was kind of funny seeing Hunter get all excited for a cryptid or even me, but I decided to be nice and bring him back to reality. "I don't remember, but I'm sure she will turn up again. Come on, we gotta go back and return these cans."

Hunter seemed to relax, but seemed somewhat disappointed. I felt bad, but I needed to get back to the base. I didn't want to be stuck in detention forever.

Once we brought the bags of cans to Mr. Schmidt, he told us we were free to go. Hunter stretched his arms over his head. The sun was now peeking through the trees. The clouds were changing from white to a light pink and yellow. Our shadows were longer and stretched alongside eachother as we walked out of the school and down the cracked cement sidewalk along the chain linked fence.

"That was a nice detention. I never have anyone to talk to when I get detentions," Hunter said. I just nodded my head. My wings were feeling very sore in the sweater. I wanted to stretch them. Patrick was already waiting for me in the car. Hunter sat on the bench.

"Well, see ya," he said.

I hesitated. "Do you want Patrick to take you home?" I offered. Hunter looked up at me in surprise. "Really?" He asked. His heart was beating fast. I nodded, already regretting. He was in the car before I could change my mind. This kid would hop into vans if kidnappers had a "cryptid" or a monster girl in it. Patrick smirked at me from the rearview mirror.

"Who's your friend?" He asked. Hunter waved. "Hi! I'm Hunter Thorson. You can call me Hunter..." and then he went into his whole back story the whole drive to his house. I tried drowning him out by looking outside at the passing trees and cars.

When we pulled up to Hunter's house, Hunter finally stopped talking about his life and unbuckled his seatbelt. "Thank you, Patrick. Thank you, for the ride," he said my fake name and waved. I awkwardly waved back.

"I'll see you later!" He said as he ran towards his house. It was a small yellow house with a red door. Yellow and pink flowers bloomed in front of it. One side of the grass was over watered while the other side was dying, even though a sprinkler was going off on its side, trying to keep it alive.

When he was in the house, I immediately took off my heavy sweater that felt like a tent on me and let my wings stretch out. Patrick pulled away from the curb and started heading to the one lonely road that winded up to the base.

"Nice seeing you making friends," said Patrick. I shrugged. "I consider him more of an acquaintance. He's a bit annoying if you haven't noticed." Patrick moved his head a little. "Quite the chatterbox, but still a really nice kid. Still good to have someone to talk to, and not be alone." He said. I shrugged and looked out the window. Watching birds fly overhead. I sighed. Feeling my heart sink. I missed flying...

...

When Patrick and I got to the base, it was almost six. I didn't see Monger thankfully. He said he wanted to talk to me but I guess he got wrapped up in another meeting or something. I didnt want to talk to him. I made my way down the elevator to where the monsters were kept. Susan, Link and Butterfly were still gone. No one came around to greet me or welcome me home. Not even B.O.B., whom I had no idea where he was.

I grabbed my backpack and fished out my small pile of homework. I sighed. Another thing why I wasn't happy coming back to school for. The homework.

I sat down at my boring desk that had just a lamp on it. I hated my room. There was barely anything in it to call it a room. I really needed to get out and buy things to make my room more of a room. Maybe some more books, or some plastic bats.

Shaking my head to make me focus, I tried to start my homework. Science and Math weren't my thing, so I walked out of my room and down to Doc's room. Doc rarely left his room so it was easy to know where he was.

I knocked on the door.

No answer.

I tried again.

"Doc?" I asked.

An explosion happened behind the door, causing me to jolt a little. A couple minutes later, the door opened. Doc was covered head to toe in dust and debris.

"Oh! Hello Bat, what can I do for you?" he asked in his cheerful voice, unphased by the situation he was just in. I cleared my throat. "I need help on this work sheet, its science and algebra," I said showing him the papers

Doc examined the papers.

"Hmmmm…" he said as he looked at them. "I can help you with this. Come inside and I'll make us some tea," he said. I cautiously came inside his room. I had never been in his room before. What I remembered was that it was clean. Now it was dark and smelled like trash. Trash was littered everywhere, which explained why it smelled of trash. It wasn't pleasant.

"Here we go," Doc said as he cleared a pile of trash off of a table. I wiped the chair before sitting down. Doc smiled at the clean table and placed his hands on his hips. "Allright, now for the tea," he said. Doc went over to a complicated machine which I guess made tea. I took off my beanie and shoved it into my pocket, causing my ears to spring up.

"You don't have to make me tea, Doc," I said politely. Doc waved my words away.

"Nonsense. Its three o clock. Tea time."

"It's six twenty one Doc."

"...it's three o'clock somewhere," he said.

With that, he handed me a teacup with what I was guessing was his crazy version of tea and a floating candy wrapper in it. I thanked him and moved the tea far away from me. Doc downed his tea in one gulp. He took a pencil out of his pocket and started helping me with my science homework.

During the time we spent on my homework, he insisted that the book was wrong and his way was right with the math. He kept saying the facts were wrong in the science book and rewrote them. I had to pull it away from him. I didn't want to get in trouble for returning a school textbook with writing all over it.

When we were finally done, I sighed, closing the book. Doc noticed. "What's wrong, Bat? Are you allright?" He asked me. I shook my head. "School has been rough," I told him. Doc's big bug eyes got bigger. "Oh? How so? This is only the second day."

I told him about the fight and how I got detention for it. I told him about the teachers getting upset at me for wearing my hat and backpack in classes. I just told him everything that was bothering me and on my mind. Eventually, I told him about my encounter with October. Doc's long eyebrows went up in surprise.

"He's still around?" He asked.

I nodded. "He told me information about John. He's working somewhere in the school or around the school. I looked around the campus but couldn't find anything." My wings went down as I sighed, laying my head down on the table.

"I am tired of this. I wish I already knew where John was. I wish I could know that John will be found and taken to jail." Doc was silent for a moment. He nodded his head. He placed his hand on my shoulder.

"I know Bat. We all do...We don't know what the future will hold...but we can only do our best in hopes that it benefits us," Doc said.

I sighed. Turning away. The future. What would the future hold for me? I didn't want to screw up and make John win. Felt like it was all up to me. The burden. The fate of the world in my hands. I turned back to Doctor Cockroach but he was already walking away from me, scribbling some notes down in his pad. Seems that he got inspired by another project. I decided not to break him away from his thoughts. I quietly left his room.

Walking back to my room I checked what me and Doc worked on. Hopefully it was right. I slowed to a stop when I came near Link's room. I hesitated before deciding to go inside. He said it was ok for me to use his equipment.

I mainly punched the sleeping bag to get my frustrations out. I hated the school. I hated Monger. I hated my life. I was so upset. It felt like the whole world was against me. I wanted to scream at something and watch it fly across the room and end up smashing through the wall.

I screamed, watching the punching bag rip off from its stand and fly straight up into the air. I flew after it and punched it hard. Imagining it was Mirror. The punching bag came rocketing down to the ground. It wasn't enough to put a dent. I grabbed the heavy punching bag and gave it some more kicks and punches. I threw a three pound weight into the air and screamed at it. It went up so fast and got wedged into the ceiling. Oh shit. Took me a while to pry it out.

Besides destroying Link's room, it overall felt good. Soon after I was very exhausted. I forgot to eat dinner. I remember coming back down from the ceiling with the weight in my hand. I decided to lay down on the cold floor and take a rest...

...


	12. Chapter 11: Bat Winged

...

Chapter 11: Bat Winged

...

* * *

...

I woke up from a horrible nightmare. Another strange one. Similar to the one of when my arm got shot. This time it's my eye: _I scream in shock and agony as something sharp rips across my eye. Blood gushes out. So much blood. I cry out, covering my eye socket. Blood dribbles out through my fingers. I'm on the floor. On my hand and knees._

I had no idea why I was having these dreams. They were terrifying, but somehow familiar. I don't know how to describe it. I guess almost like I've experienced this before without experiencing it? I don't know.

I jolt awake and found myself laying on the cold floor. It was dark. I look around with both working eyes, not recognizing where I was. Then I realized I was still in Link's room. I must have fallen asleep from exhaustion. I was having a hard time focusing or thinking. Was I still dreaming?

Just then, I heard footsteps outside. Link. His tail lightly slapped the ground as he came up to his room and opened the door. I was half awake on the floor. I closed my eyes and relaxed my body. I heard him stop. He must have noticed me. Light poured in from outside the dark room. Link was silent and not moving where he stood. He quietly came up to me.

"Bat?" He asked softly with concern. He touched my shoulder. I was too tired to answer. I breathed. He seemed to relax and sigh with relief. I could feel Link staring down at me. His heart was beating softly. I kept my eyes closed and breathed slow and heavy. My mind was still fuzzy around the edges.

He gently lifted me up from the floor wrapping me in my wings. I felt my body rise from the cold floor and into his arms. My head rested against his chest. His feet padded against the floor. I felt like a small bag of marshmallows the way he just picked me up. My body went warm from his touch. I got nervous that my milk white face was turning cherry red. It was easy to see me blush, which always made me blush even more.

The hybrid carried me to my room. He opened the door, holding me in the crook of his arm, and walked inside. Very carefully he laid me down in my bed, tucking my wings in. Pulling the covers up to my chin. Hesitant, he softly removed a strand of stray hair from my face. He stood there for a moment before turning back and walking out of my room and closing the door behind him.

That's all I remember. I wasn't sure if it was real or a dream, but then, I couldn't remember heading back to my room...

...

The next day at school went by slow, thankfully I didn't have to deal with detention again. Mirror and her gang left me alone. Kennith said hi to me which I found weird. Hunter was with me at break and lunch. Hunter showed me a new photo he got. Ever since yesterday when I told him what I saw could be the bat girl, he snuck into the school at night and showed me what he saw.

"Check this out! It's a little hard to see but you can make out the bat wing!" He said as he pointed to the picture. It was a very dark picture. But the light from the parking lot and the moon helped to make out that distinguished shape of a bat winged creature in flight. It made my blood run cold. That couldn't have been me. I wasn't known for sleep flying. What was this thing? Another John experiment? Was he making more teen monsters like me?

As I sat in the back of the car after school, I decided to fly back to the school at night and investigate myself. When Patrick parked the car, I jumped out and rushed to the elevator and made my way down to the secret underground base where the monsters were.

Link, B, and Susan were back from their mission. My heart lifted seeing Link in the meeting room. I dropped my backpack and unfurled my wings. Stretching them. My wings were very sore from keeping them in the back pack. I winced when I felt a pain in one if the limbs.

"That looks uncomfortable," Link said to me. I nodded my head in response as I came up to them. "Hey guys, welcome back...how was West Virginia?" I asked. Link shrugged. "It was alright. No crazy alien fights. The Mothman didn't look like a moth man. He was a regular looking guy. Went by the name of... Indrid Cold?" He gave me a confused look. I nodded, my heart pounding in excitement.

"That's what he goes by," I said, almost going all nerd and telling him everything I knew about the Mothman. Link nodded. "Oh...ok. I at first thought we met a random crazy." Susan smirked, most likely thinking the same thing before responding. "He seemed interested in helping us as best as he could. Gave us very confusing information."

My yellow alien eyes widened in surprise and excitement. They got to talk to the Mothman and he gave them information that predicts the future! My wings lifted in anticipation. Right as I was going to ask them what the information was, Monger came in on his jet pack and came up to me.

"There you are. Think you could get away that easily? You and I still need to talk," Monger said, trying to not sound mad in front of Susan and Link, but I could tell he wasn't all too happy. Susan and Link exchanged glances. "What happened?" Asked Susan. Monger shook his head. "Bat can give you the details later."

With that, Monger activated his jet-pack and hovered. "Follow me, Bat." I took one last look at the two monsters before sighing. I unfurled my wings and tried flying. My wings were not happy. It was painful taking off and following after the general.

...

The talk was not as bad as I thought. Mostly was a warning and if I did it again I'd get grounded. Blah blah. He did agree that the principal was full of BS punishing me and not the bullies. The thing that threw me off was before I left his office, he told me not to go sneaking out to the school every night looking for John.

I turned around and told him I haven't been sneaking out at night. He didn't seem to believe me. He said that there has been some reports going on down in the town, mostly around the high school about a winged bat creature being seen flying around. Some are saying it's the Mothman, except with yellow eyes, others Jersey Devil. A new cryptid possibly.

"I only know of one winged bat creature and that's you, Bat. I don't want you getting caught by someone and we can't come to help you. You understand me?" He asked. I nodded.

I left his office and headed back to my room. Another bat winged creature. ... All this talk about another bat winged creature made me want to go and see for myself. I didn't feel like flying so I just took my time getting to my room. Walking to the elevator and going down several stories and then walking the huge corridor down to the last room. My room. My footsteps echoed, making the only sound, except for Link's low radio music set on a rock and roll station.

Link opened his door and saw me walking to my room.

"How did it go?" Link asked. I shrugged. "I got a warning. Next time I step out of line I'm grounded. The usual parent talk." Link nodded. "Doc told us you got into a fight."

I nodded. Link smirked. "Did you win?" He asked. I sighed and shook my head. "No. I got in trouble, even though they started the fight. I got detention for it. They didn't get in trouble because they come from a rich family and get good grades." Link's smirk disappeared.

"Ouch. Rough day," he said.

I sighed. "It's my life."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault...it's just high school."

"I hope it gets better,"

"Me too..."

Link was quiet for a moment, then he hesitated and asked. "Um...why were you in my room last night?" My face burned. I turned away. "Um...I... I needed to let off some steam. I should've asked...but you were gone..." I said. Link nodded. "One of my barbells is missing," he said.

"Did you look up?"

"Up?"

"On the ceiling?"

He looked up.

"In your room," I told him.

He went into his room and looked up. He cursed under his breath.

"How did you get it up there?!" He asked in shock.

"I screamed at it."

"There's another dent in the ceiling."

"I didn't do it just once,"

Link was quiet for a long time. My ears flicked back when he turned back to me. I couldn't tell if he was upset or not. He was going through mixed emotions. He silently told me to come into his room. I came in.

The punching bag was in shreds, all the stuffing falling out from it. The barbells all scattered around in different places. One still on the ceiling I forgot about. One of the big weights in the pool.

I looked down at the ground. "...I'm sorry..."

Link sighed. He was upset. He gave me a look that showed his frustration with me messing up his room. I looked away and rubbed my arm. "I...I'm really sorry...I-I promise not to go into your room anymore. I'll ask Monger to get you new equipment." I stuttered the whole time. I didn't want Link to hate me. Link eventually interrupted me.

"I know you are having a rough time at school. I understand... It's hard being a monster and trying to live a normal life in a modern world..." he turned to look down at me. "It's even harder living a life as a human before turning into a monster, and hoping to still live that normal life."

I nodded. Feeling tears come to my eyes. I pushed them back down so Link wouldn't see. "I just feel I can't be myself anymore. I can't fight aliens as a monster. I have to hide my monster self and pretend to be human again...I don't know what I am anymore..."

Link surprised me by wrapping his arm around me. Pulling me in for a side hug. "You are Bat. You are our friend...It will get better, I promise," he told me. I didn't really know what to do in that moment since my arms were pinned to my sides as my face burst into flames being close to him. Then he quickly pulled away and ruffled my hair.

"Just...next time you get upset, don't cause a mess in my room ok? Also if you don't mind..." he points up, indicating for me to go up there and get the barbell that was stuck in the ceiling.

I went up to the ceiling and brought it down for him. Afterwards, I helped him clean his room of equipment. Link jumped into the pool and retrieved the one at the bottom. When he resurfaced, he flicked water at me. I nearly screamed and quickly moved away. Link chuckled as he came out of the water, looming over me. "I thought you were part bat, not part cat," he teased. He shook more water, causing me to jump back several feet. Link laughed. I gave him a look but couldn't help but to smile too.

"So how was Indrid Cold?" I asked. Link stopped laughing and suddenly became very serious. "He was kind of creepy. Gave me a weird feeling. He was friendly, but I don't know how to describe it...He said he wanted to help...He gave us a bunch of confusing stuff. Susan wrote it down."

"What did he say?" I asked. Link hesitated. "I don't remember all of them. He gave us a list. Said it would help us with taking down John and a few other things." I held my breath. Wanting for him to continue. What were they? Oh man I was starting to be like Hunter. So crazy for cryptids.

"He said a bunch of numbers...Bagel..." Link was trying to remember. "Bagel?" I asked. Link nodded. I narrowed my eyes in confusion. Didn't seem like something the famous Mothman would say. What the heck did that mean? Did he get his grocery list confused with 'tell monsters this stuff' list? Link remembered one last thing:

"He said to say hi to you and F.B..."

I blinked in surprise. The Mothman knew who I was. I would've been jumping in the air with excitement if Link hadn't told me the other thing. "...What's F.B.? Who's F.B.? Facebook?" I asked.

"...I have no idea..." Link said.

...

* * *

...

Night couldn't come any sooner. I came out from the base and took to the dark night skies. The air was cool. Not too cold or warm. It felt nice. My wings were still a little sore but it felt nice stretching them out. The sky was a little cloudy. A quarter moon was out, illuminating everything into silver. Heavy shadows were cast under trees. The smell of pine was in the air. Unfamiliar territory I wasn't used to. This wasn't my hometown. I missed my familiar home town.

It took me a while to figure out how to find the high school. I followed the road Patrick always drove. Thankfully I always stared out the window since I got car sick sometimes. I followed the road down I had to be careful when I saw a car driving on the same road. I flew higher up so I looked like a regular bird far up. I didn't have to wear my sunglasses tonight. I could see just fine at night without them.

I flew closer to the ground when the high school came into view. I wanted to stay up in the air a while longer. Flying was one of the few good things that came out for being a monster. As I was coming in, I noticed a strange light glowing on the other side of the school. My mind instantly went to that one building that was being worked on. That had to be it.

I landed just on the other side of the locked gate inside the school. It was dark, The parking lot was the only area that had the lights on. The school was eerie quiet and dark like a gravesite. The school took on another level of scary. I made my way down the path that lead around the cluster of buildings and over to the back where that one building was in the far back.

I tucked my wings close to my back. I was a little scared. I looked around, making sure I wasn't being watched. I shouldn't be. It was almost midnight. The further I walked into the dark school, the more nervous I got. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

I jumped when I heard a sound. The winged creature? I looked around. Nothing. I hesitated, then realized it might be October. I hoped it was October. I didn't want to be alone doing this. "Oc...October?" I whispered. Silence. "October?" I asked again. A faint caw somewhere in the trees. I sighed with relief. The flapping of wings was heard as a crow came into view. The bird appeared and October shifted in front of me into the scientist. The form I was used to him taking when we first met. His eyes were just like mine. Yellow with black slits like a cat's. They almost seemed to glow in the dark.

"Bat...what are you doing?" He asked me. I was about to tell him, when he interrupted me. "How are you here, when I just saw you over there?" he asked me. I blinked my alien eyes. "What? What are you talking about, October? I just got here," I told him. The alien shook his head. "You have been around for a while. I've been trying to follow you, but you move too fast and get away before I can catch up to you," he said.

I shook my head. Before I could tell him that it wasn't me, I heard a noise. We both stopped talking and turned to the direction the sound came from. October immediately shifted into a creature that wasn't an animal that belonged on this planet. It looked like a weird combination of crow, bull, and bat. October got in front of me. "Stay behind me, Bat," he told me in a whisper. My ears didn't pick up any heavy footsteps or anything that would have been a threat. I carefully walked around his strangely formed figure.

"I've dealt with weird creatures all summer, I can take care of myself, October," I whispered back to him. October shifted back to his human form. I don't know why, but I felt October's heart. It seemed to be beating like an echo. Or he had multiple heartbeats. It sounded weird.

"I just don't want you to get hurt," he said. I thanked him and said I would be fine. We approached the building. A weird glowing green light was seen coming through the dark windows. There were barricades and yellow caution tape around it. I assumed some of the teens have tried going in and making out at some point.

No one was around, but there was a security camera above the door. I placed my hand out causing October to stop. He stopped in his tracks and saw the security camera. "That wasn't there before," he said. I nodded. "Kind of weird for a building that is still being built to have a camera up...and the only building in the school to have a camera."

I looked at the doors of the building. A padlock was seen on the wall near it. A padlock? For a science building? Not even the old science building has a padlock. Why a padlock? What was going on?

Just then I heard footsteps. October and I quickly hid behind the building we were nearest and peeked around the corner. A young man was seen walking towards the construction site in black garb and a construction vest on. He didn't look like a construction worker, and even if he was, construction workers don't work at midnight.

He came up to the padlock and started punching the buttons. I tried memorizing the numbers but I was too far away, and my memory was garbage. I only remembered the first three numbers out of the six or seven he punched in. The door opened for him and he walked in. Adrenaline rushed through me as I tried grabbing the door before it locked itself. I didn't make it in time and the door slammed shut.

"Dammit!" I muttered angrily. I tried pressing the buttons but the padlock turned red when I tried and gave off an unsatisfied beep noise. October walked up to me. I sighed and turned to him. "You don't happen to have an amazing memory on the code for this padlock do you?" I asked him. He silently walked up and punched in seven letters.

The padlock turned green and the door opened. I grinned at him. "Got a good memory on faces and numbers," I said complimenting him. October gave me a quizzical look. "I just guessed," he said. My smile disappeared. "Oh...lucky guess," I muttered.

We both stiffened when we heard a sound from behind us. Another guy, older this time in the same garb was approaching us. October quickly shape shifted into the last guard we saw. I didn't know what to do. It was too late any way. He saw me and pulled out a walkie talkie.

"One of the experiments got out...what does it look like? Has bat wings...oh shit. Mike! Get her!" he shouted at October. October pretended to grab me. "I got her," he said, pretending to be Mike, but his voice was flat and bland.

The man was about to say more in the walkie talkie, but October stopped him. His arm turned into an octopus tentacle and in a lightning fast motion, whipped it to the man and hit the man right in the stomach, knocking him off his feet. October grabbed the walkie talkie out of the air and pulled his arm back in as if it were a whip. His arm turned back into a human arm, and crushed the walkie talkie in his hand.

Groaning, the man staggered to his feet. "You...aren't...Mike..."

I screamed at him right when he pulled out his gun. He pulled the trigger when he fell. I saw a flash of silver streak towards me, flicker from my sonic scream a couple inches and hit me on my side. I cried out and went down.

"Bat!" October cried out. He went down next to me.

October flickered from human to weird alien beast. He wanted to protect me, but at the same time wanted to help me, I doubt he had healing abilities.

The man I took down was paralyzed at the moment do it was going to be a while before he could move his body again so I wasn't worried about him getting up at any time.

Just then, the door opened behind us and three "construction workers" came out. Must have heard my scream. They pulled out their hand guns. One pulled out a flashlight and aimed the face of it to the ground. It was one of those big flashlights. I got nervous seeing the flashlight. John had to have told them about our sensitive eyes to light. I don't know why give the men guns. I hoped John wanted us alive.

October tensed up and got ready to shape shift. I touched his arm and shook my head. We were out numbered. They had guns and flashlights. It was hopeless to fight our way out of this. I was hurt and I didn't want to get shot again, or even blinded. Same for October, I didn't want to see him get hurt.

October wrapped his arms around me in a protective way. The men talked amongst themselves on what to do with us. They decided to blind us before taking us inside. Me and October both tensed up and the mention of being blinded by the flashlight. I was starting to wish I brought my sunglasses. At least the pain wouldnt be so bad.

Right when the one with the flashlight turned it on, something came at him from behind and knocked him out fast. The flashlight was on in mid air and shined into our eyes. Both me and October cried out and turned away. Thankfully it was a brief moment but man it still stings. It was going to take a while for our eyes to heal and adjust to the darkness again.

The two remaining men lifted their guns. No one was there. Just the man with the flashlight, both out cold on the ground.

"B-behind you!" The man I screamed at earlier shouted. The men whipped around but were too slow as something caused them both to ram their heads against eachother, knocking them out and falling to the ground. I still couldn't see that well, but could faintly make out a dark figure moving around fast. I saw a glimpse of wings. Bat wings. It was Hunter's cryptid.

I sat upright from the ground. The figure's back was turned to us. I couldn't see the figures face, but I could tell by the shape that it was a female. October still held me. He was still trying to see. He kept blinking his yellow eyes and rubbing them against his shoulder. My burning eyes stayed on the dark figure. We both froze when the figure spoke.

"Stay away from here," said the figure. She turned her head to the side. Her eye glowed red. A trail of light came out from it.

"You are just going to get hurt." She added. Then she took something out of her bag and tossed towards us. It was a metal canister. October grabbed it when it came rolling to us. It was a first aid kit, but it looked different from what I was used to seeing. I at first thought it was a bomb, but October seemed to immediately know what it was.

October got to work fixing my wound as best as he could. I didn't know he knew how to patch up wounds. Then the female figure started to walk away from us Her back still to us. I tried getting up, but it hurt to move. I winced in pain and groaned.

"W...wait..." I choked out. "Are you ok, Bat?" Asked October. I nodded my head in response, not really able to say anything yet since I was in a lot of pain. I forced myself to look back over to the dark figure.

I wasn't able to get a good look at the figure before it took off into the night. I didn't realize the entire time the bat winged person was there, I had been holding my breath. I exhaled out. Breathing normally again. My heart was racing inside my rib cage. Was there another bat person like me? Was John turning teens into monsters with alien DNA in them?

What was going on?

...


	13. Chapter 12: Real or Myth?

...

Chapter 12: Real or Myth?

* * *

...

October used the alien first aid kit to patch me up. I was crying out in pain from the burning feeling, but then immediately stopped when the pain stopped hurting. I looked down at where he fixed the bullet wound. A dark scar was formed there. My skin was whiter then the white scar color.

He told me how his people were allies with these other aliens who gave them a gift that's a more advanced version of a first aid kit. October's people dont really need them since they heal faster on their own but the technology is very helpful when you need something to get healed quicker. They taught October's people how to use them before a war against an evil alien race was invading their planets. They were able to heal soldiers who got wounded in battle and go back out to keep fighting.

October helped me to my feet. "How do you feel?" He asked me. I looked down at the dark star shaped mark, hesitant to run my fingers over it. I looked back to him. "I don't feel pain anymore...Thank you," I said, pulling my lower shirt down. He nodded.

I looked at my phone and saw that it was very late. I told October that we could talk about what just happened later. He nodded silently, then handed me the alien first aid kit. I thanked him and told him I'd see him tomorrow. He responded by turning into an owl and flying away. I unfurled my wings and took off as best as I could into the night, back to the base.

...

The next morning I was super exhausted. I got up very late. Apparently I slept through my first alarm. I moved around like a sluggish zombie. Got a tshirt on backwards, and the makeup I put on to hide my white skin looked horrid.

"Uh oh, here she comes. Miss Zombie girl," Link joked as I came into the cafeteria and made a drunken beeline to the fruit section. I grabbed an apple and an orange and left.

Patrick drove a little over the speed limit to get me to school, bit it didn't really matter. I was already late to class. My teacher gave me a warning before continuing the lesson. I pretended I was listening while taking notes, but I ended up falling asleep. The teacher slammed a book down on my desk, causing me to jolt awake. I was given detention again.

October met up with me as his human teenage self during lunch. He talked about last night in a low voice. He was very concerned about what was going on and didn't want me investigating anymore. He said he would keep tabs on it and report back to me about it. Just then Hunter appeared and October didn't have time to disappear and shape shift into a bird.

"Hey-Oh!...Who's your friend?" Hunter asked. I could hear the jealousy in his voice. I felt my face burn. "Hey, Hunter. This is Oct...oby..." I stumbled over. Hunter gave me a confused look behind his large thick rimmed glasses. His blonde hair sticking up from bed head.

"Octoby?" He asked. October, not understanding what was going on, said his nickname. "I go by October. My real name is apparently too hard to say for hum...people of this...learning facility."

Before Hunter could make another confused face, I quickly jumped in. "He also goes by Toby. He's new to the school. He's from another country. I offered to show him around while hes visiting," I lied. Hunter was quiet for a moment before nodding. "Oh ok...cool.

After school I headed to detention. Hunter was already there picking up trash. He said hi to me as I began collecting bottles with him. Surprisingly he wasn't all that talkative. I asked if everything was ok. He said he was ok, but I could tell by his racing heart that he wasn't. I wondered if it was because I was talking to October in his teen form and he thought I liked him. The thought made me blush.

After detention, Patrick picked me up and I headed back to the base...

...

Days slowly passed. September rolled by and became October. The school started to gradually decorate for Halloween. There was going to be a dance on Halloween. I knew no one was gonna ask me, the weird new kid, but I imagined asking Link to the dance and dancing with him. I sighed a heavy sad sigh, knowing it was just a fantasy.

During break, October came by where I was sitting and joined me. He was wearing the same clothes he conjured up for his human teen persona. I was mainly surprised he was getting more comfortable being amongst the teenagers. He looked around before speaking. "I see there is a festive event going on," October points at the Halloween decorations. I nodded. "It's October."

October gives me a confused look. "What? What is October? Am I not named this October?" he asked. I had almost forgotten that October was also the name for the month. I smiled at the confused alien and started to explain.

"This month is called October."

"I'm nicknamed after a month?"

"No...the first part of your name sounds like October, which ironically is the tenth month in our year...and these decorations are part of our festivities we call Halloween." I explained to him. he blinked in surprise. "I see," he said. "So that is what October is." I nodded my head again.

"Hope you don't mind. It's a little hard to say your actual name," I said.

He waved off my words. "I like my human name. I like what it brings." he stares at the black and orange streamers and paper skeletons in the windows.

"Halloween."

I smiled. "Yeah, Halloween is my favorite holiday. You get to dress up as whatever you want and get candy," I explained. October was fascinated and wanted to learn more. I told him as much as I could about Halloween.

My voice faded when I saw Mirror and her gang walk by. October turned and saw well. We all stared at each other. Mirror glared at me. Joker passed by right after Mirror. He gave me a look of disgust, then a look of confusion at October. I'm guessing he was trying to figure out if October was familiar and if he even went to this school.

Once the gang was gone, I continued talking to October about Halloween. October seemed interested in dressing up. "What do you plan on dressing up as for Halloween?" He asked me. I truthfully had no idea. I mean, over the summer, I became a monster and lost my family. I didn't even think about what I was going to be dressing up this year. I didn't think I would even be able to dress up at all...ever...

Before I could respond, Hunter appeared and sat at our table.

"Did you guys see the newspapers this morning!?" Hunter asked excitedly. October and I exchanged glances. The base never got newspapers since it was a secret organization; and October...well I doubt he knew what a newspaper was.

"What's-?" October started to ask. Thankfully Hunter interrupted him and pulled out a newspaper from his backpack. "My photos got accepted in the local newspaper!" He said excitedly. If I could blanch even more, I would've.

Right there, smack dab in the middle, front page, was Hunter's photo of me. Bat Girl! Myth or Real? The front page read. October made a surprised sound. "That's-!" He stopped himself. "...Er...Brisk," he said. Hunter and I gave him a confused look. October tried explaining what he meant. Then I realized he was confused with the word 'cool.'

"He means cool, Hunter," I said. "...I think he's trying to make that word into another way of calling something awesome or great," I lied, helping the alien not look weird. Hunter bought my lies as usual and grinned. "Thanks, Toby! I am so happy this happened to me. I've been waiting so long to get my photos I have taken of cryptids into the newspapers ever since I was little."

October gave me a look. His eyes were wide and were changing colors. This wasn't good. I gave him a I Know But I Don't Know What To Do look. Hunter kept staring down at the newspaper happily. Then his smile faded a bit and his head tilted a bit. "Hm..." he said.

"What's wrong, Hunsman?" asked October. Again, using words wrong. I was about to correct the alien but Hunter didn't seem to hear it. "Something seems weird about my photos." I turned to Hunter. "What do you mean?" I asked him. Hunter pointed to the front page. "The bat girl I saw before school started, and the one I saw flying around here. She looks...different."

"Different how?"

Hunter shook his head. "I dont know."

"You said it was the same bat girl."

"I mean, yeah. It looked like it was. She had the same bat wings and all...but I dunno. I'm starting to think that there are two. Two bat girls. A younger one and an older one or something."

October and I exchanged glances. We remembered the bat girl we encountered several nights ago. She had to be another experiment. Of course neither of us could get a good look at her to be sure. She was a mystery.

The bell rang, indicating the break was over. I said goodbye to Hunter and started walking towards my class. October followed next to me. I glanced behind me and saw Hunter staring at us as we walked away from him. He lowered his head sadly and kicked a piece of trash on the ground. He slowly turned, shoving his hands in his pockets. The newspaper tucked under his arm as he walked to his other class. The tips of my ears burned.

"So what are you gonna do about that rolled up collection of paper in his arm? You gonna steal it and destroy the evidence?" asked October next to me. I turned back to shook my head. "I can't. Theres multiple copies all around this town. All I have to do is hope the story doesn't interest people. If they just think its bogus and move on with their life, it wont be a big deal and I don't have to tell Monger about it." Deep down I was panicking.

October nodded and was quiet for a while. "I'm gonna try and figure out what's going on with that Bat girl again." I just nodded. I know he has tried before, but she always seemed two steps ahead of us. I got to my class and waved goodbye to the disguised alien. October walked off. At the corner of my eye he flickered into a cabbage butterfly and fluttered away.

...

I sat there at my desk with my head resting on my crossed arms. My ears twitched in my beanie to every sound. My teacher announced that we were going to have a test. I raised my hand and asked if I could do the test outside. I couldn't concentrate with all the little beating hearts beating in different patterns and all these annoying sounds of papers rustling and pencils tapping on desks. The teacher gave me a look like I was crazy or something. The kids looked at me and some snickered.

"I can't really have any students leave the class," he said. I hesitated. Should I really even bother at this point? I was just getting tired of this school. The bullies, the detentions, the homework. I was losing my mind hearing all these heartbeats constantly. I knew who liked who, and which guy hated the other guy. It was annoying. Bad enough, I was the weird new girl everyone knew about. No one besides Hunter, wanted to hang with me. I sighed. Maybe I should get cotton for my ears next time, and just endure the sounds for now. Before I could decide on what to say, there was a faint, but loud explosion outside. Everyone immediately ran to the windows.

A giant metal alien UFO thing appeared in the distance and was destroying a city several miles away from the school. Everyone started making excited noises and taking pictures of the creature on their phones. While the teacher was occupied, I went outside.

Crowds of students and teachers were already out and looking across the fields to where the giant alien robot was attacking the city. I started to walk backwards from the kids as they all walked closer to get a better look. I could go into the bathroom and quickly wipe the make up off, and take off to fight the alien robot. If the whole school has stopped because of this distraction, there's no point in being stuck here and not able to help fight.

I turned and bolted to the bathroom. Thankfully no one was in there and in less than five minutes, I was my pale faced bat winged monster self. No more awkward human teenager. Now I was Bat. Super monster. Ok maybe not that. Sounds kind of weird. My heart skipped a beat when the bathroom door opened.

My body went cold, then flushed back to warm in relief when I saw it was only October. He stared at me in confusion. "What are you doing in here?" He asked me. I walked up to him and tried to go past him. "I'm going to fight the robot," I said. October grabbed my arm. "What? You can't go out there," he said with concern in his voice.

I stopped and turned to him. I opened my mouth to speak, then stopped. I stared at the alien for several seconds, enough to make him uncomfortable. The alien gave me a confused look. "What?" he asked. I smirked at him.

"Could you do a favor for me, October? Please?" October was still confused. I pointed to myself. "Could you shape shift yourself to look like me and take my place?" October's eyes widened, then shook his head. "No, no no. Absolutely not," he said. My ears went down in the black beanie on my head. This is gonna take some more persuasion.

"Oh come on, October. I'll be back before the next period. I promise. I just want to fight for a few minutes," I said. October still shook his head. "What if I get caught? Your instructors will call the men who caught me before and take me back," he said.

I chuckled and shook my head. "It doesn't work like that. All you have to do is sit in a chair and pretend you are listening. You are just pretending to be me till I get back." October still wasn't convinced. I sighed.

"I want to be of use. I'm tired of pretending to be normal. I'm not normal anymore..." October was quiet. He showed no emotion. I looked to the door to make sure no one was heading this way before looking back at the alien. "John took that away from me...away from you too...being normal. You feel so out of place in this world..."

October winced. He kept his eyes away from me. He looked out the door and over to the alien robot out in the distance before turning to me. He hesitated for a moment before responding. "I dont want you getting hurt."

I smiled a small smile. I didn't think October cared for me. I reached out to give him a hug. He pulled away. "What are you doing?" He asked me. I stopped, then hesitated. "Um...I was gonna give you a hug, but...nevermind." My face burned a little for even thinking of hugging the alien. October stared at me for what felt like a long time to where I got uncomfortable.

October looked around before shifting into my "human" self. Outside, the principal was heard talking into a microphone on the stone stage out in the quad for all the students to head back into class. Me and October quickly ran out of the bathroom and towards one of the exits of the school.

I unfurled my wings. It felt so good to stretch my wings out again. October watched as I flapped my wings and then taking off.

"Don't be gone for too long...and be careful," he said. I smiled and waved goodbye to him as I took to the skies towards the UFO.


	14. Chapter 13: A Shocking Event

**A/N: Hey guys. Thanks for staying with my story. I appreciate it. I know the last chapter took forever and I hope the others dont take as long. I never want to abandon my stories. I just get so busy with classes and life. I want to finish this fanfic. I think about it every day. I just get easily distracted with other things. Thank you for those who held on. I'm gonna try to get back into my fanfics. I have two or three others on the back burner, so I have a lot on my plate. Thank you for understanding and staying with the story. **

Chapter 13: A Shocking Event

* * *

...

I'm not usually one who likes to ditch class. I was feeling worried that I was going to get caught; but while I was flying over the trees and neighborhoods, that all washed away and I felt free. It felt so good to stretch my wings and take flight. Twisting around telephone poles and wires. I flew higher up when I saw cars drive by. I didn't want them seeing me.

The city was a little farther than I thought as I flew closer to it. The spinning UFO made it look like it was closer. I had to stop a minute to catch my breath. Adrenaline flowed through my body. I felt so alive and pumped up. I felt that I could take down that flying saucer with one screech.

Once I got there, I already saw my monster friends fighting the flying saucer. The whole city had been evacuated. When I flew over I saw a ton of people at the farthest outskirts of the city, trying to take photos on their flip phones or literal cameras.

The UFO was shooting lasers at buildings and watching them crumble. Susan grabbed it and tried pulling it down, but it was a bit bigger than her and just stayed where it was. She tried punching the edges of the saucer to get it to give in. The saucer tilted to the left, causing her to lose her grip and fall. Then it tried shooting her as she fell, but Link crushed the gun that was about to vaporize the giantess.

Doc was busy making a weapon out of trash...as B.O.B. was eating the trash. Butterflyasaurous appeared behind the alien craft and grabbed it. The craft tried pulling out of her grasp. The engines changed direction on the craft, burning her. Butterfly screamed in pain, letting go of the craft. Link came over to see if she was ok. Butterfly screeched something. I'm guessing she was out for the count for a while.

This was my perfect moment to make my entrance. I dove in. The alien craft activated a force field right when I decided to scream. My scream came back to me and hit me out of the sky.

I smacked into Susan's face. She cried out, deafening me for a moment. She quickly caught me before I fell to my death. "Bat?! What are you doing here?" She asked. I wasn't able to answer when the alien craft started shooting lasers at us. She quickly ducked behind a building.

"What are you doing here? You are supposed to be in class!" She hissed at me. I looked up at one of her huge giant blue eyes. "Class was distracted by the alien craft. I wanted to come and help," I said. Susan put me down on the ground. "We can handle this. You go back to class. School is more important." With that, she ripped a telephone pole out of the ground and ran off to hide behind another building.

I rubbed my bat ears from when my sonic screech came back to me. I felt somewhat deaf in one ear more than the other, and it felt like my bones were rattling inside my body. How long has it been? A month? Yeah. It's been a month since I fought an alien. I was not much in shape as I was. I haven't had time to work out. Also I had a feeling Link didn't really trust me with his equipment anymore.

Just then, the alien mothership started blinking and making weird noises. We stopped just for a moment to watch the big ship give birth to tiny machines, about my size, maybe a little bigger. About a good army size of them.

"Awwww it had babies. What a lucky father," B.O.B. said.

They looked really strange. Living machines that twisted and contorted. They looked like a strange creature made of knives. The body was like a couple spinning saw blades, with several longer blades snipping the air at top speed like a humming bird, and several long metal tails that came out all barbed like at the ends. Oh and they were high powered with volts of electricity. It was quite terrifying.

Susan turned to Doctor Cockroach. "How's your invention coming along, Doc?" She asked. Doctor Cockroach added one more straw to it. "Ready, my dear!" He shouted up to her. I had no idea what it was but it looked like a weird hat made of trash. Attached to the hat was a big magnet.

"All I need is one of those aliens and I'll be able to control them with my mind!" He yelled to Susan. Susan nodded and ran forward bravely towards the army of blade aliens.

Long story short, the magnet just caused a small group of aliens to get stuck to him and zap him. Susan had to pry the little aliens off of him. It was kind of funny.

I flew up along a building. I got a couple to come after me. I attempted to fly around a building, only to find myself getting entangled in those damn clotheslines that stretch from one building to another.

One of the aliens zapped me. I cried out in pain before screaming my sonic scream at it. The thing got pushed back and smacked against the other building. I flapped my wings, one of them got free, but the other I was having a hard time with. It was stuck in a big baggy shirt while my arm was looped through a pair of pants. It was very embarrassing. I hoped Link wasn't around to see it.

Another one zapped me. I screamed again, causing my wings and muscles to stop moving. I hung there for a second before falling. My body tensed up, bracing for the ground or a car to meet up with me.

Luck was thankfully on my side. One of the alien creatures grabbed me with its' tails, slicing the side of my left cheek in the process. I screamed at its wings, causing them to rip out if it's back. The thing made a weird sound that sounded like panic before crashing to the ground. I rolled along the asphalt after its body. The thing was all scratched up and parts of it were twitching. Barely alive. Then it exploded. My ears were ringing and throbbing in so much pain from all the loud sudden sounds.

I covered my face. The debris scratched parts of my wings from the impact. I groaned in anony. This was the part I hated about fighting aliens. Getting hurt and nearly dying. I was bleeding and in pain. I decided to call out from the fight. Of course I was in the center and was in a lot of pain. I decided to stay low and wait for the storm to pass.

Clutching my side, and keeping my wings from dragging on the ground, I made my way to an overturned work truck. I leaned my head against the car and sighed to myself. I made a dumb mistake. Thinking I could just run away from my problems and assume fighting aliens would be better. I don't know what I was thinking...well yeah I did:

I didn't like the school. Wanted to stretch my wings and feel the wind in my face...Also I wanted to see Link...I couldn't stop thinking of him while in class. Always hoping he would suddenly come to my class in disguise and say that the monsters needed me for something that only I could do, scoop me up into his muscular arms and take me away.

I heard the sound of four legs running along the uneven concrete and asphalt.

Speak of the devil...

Link came around and hid behind the car I was hiding behind. He hadn't noticed me as he peeked out from behind the car, checking to see where the little sawbladed, electric alien creatures were. My heart was beating fast. I needed to say something so he wouldn't leave. I cleared my throat.

"How's it going, Fishstick?" I asked, trying to sound casual, but I was in serious pain. Link jumped in surprise. "Bat!? What-? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be learning stuff?" He asked. I sat down and crossed my legs. "Oh...I'm too smart for class," I said jokingly. Link looked out from the turned over car before turning back to me.

"How did you get here? Are you bleeding?" He asked, concerned. I quickly wiped the blood off my face. "Just a flesh wound, I'm fine," I lied. Link didn't really buy it. He could see my bleeding wings, and I must have been talking loud because his finned ears kept flicking back every time I spoke.

"Ditching class?" Link asked. I quickly stood up from where I sat. "Erm...yeah...Yeah," I said, trying to sound confident. Link tilted his head a bit. "I don't see you as one to ditch class," he pointed out. I blushed.

"I...I don't usually...I wanted to help," I admitted. He nodded. "Monger isn't gonna be happy when the school tells him you ditched," he pointed out. I looked over his shoulder to make sure none of the aliens were coming our way.

"I have someone covering for me," I said. Link gave me a confused look. "Someone covering for you? Did you knock out a kid and dress them up to look like you at your desk?" He asked. I laughed. "No-" before I could finish, the sound of buzzing and weird whirring noises interrupted our conversation.

The turned over car got lifted from its spot and tossed carelessly to the side. Seven mechanical aliens glared down at us. Their bodies buzzing loud and glowing from the electric streams moving about their bodies like glowing snakes. One decided to attack immediately and electrocuted me. I screamed from the sudden pain coursing through my body. Three of them got blown up from my powerful scream.

I collapsed to the ground. Link quickly stepped in front of me and roared. He was pissed. He jumped up to the one electrocuting him and tore it apart. Another one came at him but he was able to grab it out of the air and rip it apart too. He was able to take the rest of them out with out getting machines made weird high pitch shrills before exploding. I shielded my eyes from the scraps raining down upon me. When he was done, he turned his head to me. "You allright?" He asked. I found myself staring and looked away. "Erm...yeah...I'm fine," I lied. My voice all scratchy and hoarse from screaming.

"You should...head back to class...you don't want to be part of this fight..." he said in between breaths. His chest moving as he breathed. I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay. Mainly with him..but after him saving me, I was feeling more like a pathetic damsel in distress than any kind of help. Link was still staring down at me. He didn't seem happy.

"Go back to class, Bat. We can handle this," he told me again.

Before I could say anything, there was another loud buzzing noise. Link turned around and saw thirty to forty of those alien machine creatures surrounding us. Link took a couple steps back.

My heart stopped in my chest as I slowly got up. Maybe I should've listened to my monster friends and stayed in class. We were going to die, all because of me. I distracted my friends and now we were outnumbered and about to be fried to a crisp.

My eyes flickered to Link. This was it. Our last moment together. The idea of telling Link how I felt about him never crossed my mind. Only grabbing his hand, pressing my forehead against his arm, squeezing my eyes shut and bracing for impact.

...

...

"...Bat."

I opened my eyes. Link stared down at me quizzically. I looked over to the aliens. They were gone. I blinked. "What? How were they gone?" Link cleared his throat. "Could you let go of my hand, Batsy?" I looked down and nearly had a heart attack. I quickly released my tight grip on his hand.

"Wh-what happened to the...things?" I asked in a quivering voice, super embarrassed for holding his hand. I just wanted to die right where I stood. This was such an embarrassing day for me. Link pointed up.

"Something came by and took them out," he said. We both looked up and sure enough there was this dark streak zipping everywhere. Right and left it was taking out the buzzsaw electric aliens.

I thought back to that night when me and October were surrounded by the armed guards. Was this her? Was this the other experiment? Even with my sunglasses on and in the shade I couldn't see what ahe looked like. She was moving so fast. Twisting and turning sharp turns and spiraling around in the air like an actual bat in flight catching bugs. Or in this case, killing the bugs.

It rained alien parts and other debris down near us and on the ground. Link saw a piece coming my way and quickly pushed me. I fell against the ground once again. A spinning blade whirled past me. If Link hadn't pushed me, I might have lost a leg or an arm.

Overhead the mysterious bat person kept flying back and forth till there were no more aliens left, which left the mother ship defenseless. The dark figure went back a good distance and did something that shocked all of us, by surprise.

She screamed a gigantic sonic scream. It was just like my sonic scream. Her scream was super powerful. It went through the shields of the mother ship, and began to damage the surface of the ship. The mothership started to blink red before going down and crashing into the side of a couple buildings. We all had to move out of the way to keep from getting hit by chunks of building.

"Woah...shes amazing," I heard Link say in awe next to me. It made me somewhat jealous.

"Who is that?" asked Susan coming over to us.

"Looks like some kind of bat. Another of John's experiments" guessed Doc.

"It's Bat you guys. Didn't you see her scream? Right, Bat? That's you up there right now," B.O.B. said, pointing up at the mysterious figure flying several stories above us.

I didn't respond. I didn't know who that was, but something about her seemed familiar. Maybe she was another of John's experiments. An evil twin?

I could see her a little better now. I could see the bat wings, the bat ears, the paper white skin...but her outfit was different. Strange clothes. Black material under what looked to be armor of some kind. She turned her head and looked down upon us with a frown. I could see her hesitate in the air for a moment before coming down.

We all gasped. The bat girl was a good handful of years older than me. She didnt have both of her ears. One of them had been sheared off and replaced by a satellite dish about the same size as her other ear. Her right eye was a robot eye. The white part was black and the pupil slit was red. Her left arm was a robot arm too. A cyborg bat. She had armor on her wings that looked very light, but strong. Her hair was dark brown like mine but cut short and had long bangs that were dyed purple. She wore a black backpack on her back with something bulky inside.

To me, she didn't look like she belonged here. Also she looked terrifying.

She had this permanent glare on her scarred face. No one spoke as we all stared at each other. Link was the first to say something. He took a step forward and waved. "Hey there, thanks for taking out the aliens." She didn't say anything. She just stared at him. Link continued talking. "You are really good at fighting aliens," he added, flashing a sharp toothy grin at her. "Looked good doing it too-"

"Cut the flattery, Fishsticks."

My mouth dropped. None of those words were mine. They were hers. That's what shocked all of us. Only I called Link by that nickname. Link stopped and his jaw dropped slightly, but nothing came out. The bat lady sighed and adjusted the backpack on her shoulders.

"Allright...I've been trying to avoid this situation, but I guess since I'm stuck here..." she said in a low voice. Her satellite ear moved seconds slower than her regular ear as they moved to every sound around us.

"Ok...this might sound crazy to you guys but..." she hesitated for a few seconds.

"...I am Bat..." she stared right at me. "...I come from the future," she said. I felt everyone's hearts skip several beats. B.O.B. pointed at the older me. "See? I told you guys it's Bat."


	15. Chapter 14: Future Bat

Chapter 14: Future Bat

...

* * *

...

"...Um, excuse us for a minute please," Doc was the first to say after the awkward dead silence. He motioned for me, Link, Susan and B.O.B. to come over where he was. We all huddled up and started whispering to each other.

"Do you think she's telling the truth?" Asked Doc. I nodded. "I can hear her heartbeat," I said. Link gave me a look. "How does that help us know she's lying or not?" Susan lowered her head close to him.

"When someone is lying, their heart rate quickens, Link," she said, defending me. Link placed his hands up in defeat. "Allright allright. I didn't know...I mean...for all we know it could be October." I blushed and shook my head.

"It's...not October..." I said.

Everyone looked at me. "How do you know it's not October? Does he have two hearts or something?" asked Susan. I shook my head again. "No...October is in...one of my classrooms...pretending to be me," I answered.

Link burst out laughing. Susan and Doc gave me looks.

"Bat. That's not right," Susan said.

"Making an alien shape shift to look like you and pretend to be you while you are here? That is unacceptable," Doc said, but I still saw him pull out his notebook and write something down. Link was still laughing, but stopped when Susan glared down at him with her huge blue eyes, and he cleared his throat.

"Yeah, Batsy that's not cool," he said, but his eyes said otherwise. We all turned back to the other me, who had taken off her backpack and was checking inside it. She looked back up at us and shouldered the backpack back on. I'm sure she could still hear us.

"So, what now? You gonna throw me some questions only the "real Bat" would know?" She asked. Doc silently crumpled up one of his notebook pages and pocketed it. "Of course not, my dear."

We ended up all deciding to take her back to the base with us. Doc said he had an advanced computer that could read off who she was. Butterfly met back with us. Her eyes doubled in size when Link told her that there were two of me now. She stared down at us. Not making a sound. Future me just stared back. Butterfly breathed out of her nose and looked away. We arrived back at the base with future me.

She walked in and looked around for a moment. "Been so long since I stepped back in here..." she muttered under her breath, but I was the only one who heard her. We headed over to Doc's room where he pulled out his "computer" which was just a couple pizza boxes, TV antennas, paint cans, Bobby pins and all other sorts of junk with a ton of cables snaking out from it.

"Ok!" He said excitedly as he came up to future me and held five wires with plastic suction cups at the ends. "Put these on please," he said. The possible future me winced as she took the suction cups, then carefully stuck them to her forehead. Once she did that, Doc turned on his computer. It even made the Windows turning on sound. He began typing on this makeshift keyboard.

One of the buttons was an actual button you'd have on your clothes. As well as a rubber duck, Nintendo buttons, and one that said Panic! His mouse was a literal mouse. I thought it was dead until it squeaked. Doc slapped B.O.B.'s hand away when he tried pressing one of the silly fun buttons on the keyboard. After that, Doc began to read off what his computer was typing out.

"Allright! Here we go:

Real name: Classified information.

Monster name: Bat.

Sex: Female

Race: Human and Arcipoid. That must be October's species...

Height: 5,6"

Weight: 116 pounds

Age...Thirty"

The future me's eyes widened in complete shock after hearing her age. I was puzzled at that. Why did her age suddenly shock her?

"Your real name is Classified information? Wow, that's a pretty name," B.O.B. said. Link chuckled. "No, B.O.B., that's not Bat's real name..." he said. Everyone was quiet for a minute. I don't think my friends knew my real name.

Doc continued reading down the list of information. When he was done he looked back down at the monster who says she was from the future. "She is who she says she is. This is Bat...from the future," he said. Future me ripped off the suction cups from her forehead and cheeks. Her frown still permanently worn on her face. Doc hesitated to touch her wings or to examine her robot arm. Instead, he asked:

"How did you get here from the future?"

Future Bat silently reached behind her back to her backpack. We all tensed up. The Future Monster ignored us and pulled out a toaster with strange junk attached to it: five small tubes of plutonium, four tv antennas, three alarm clocks, two cans of energy drinks and a burnt piece of toast in one of the toaster slots.

"Jesus. Looks like something Doc would make," Link pointed out. Future Bat nodded. "Actually it is." Doc's mouth dropped open in complete shock. "No. Way!" He came up to her and took the machine away, turning it around in all angles. "This is my invention?! I can't believe it! And it works-?"

Future me was glaring at him. "Sure. It "works," she said sarcastically. "I've been going through time for thirteen years. Everytime I push buttons to go to let's say...2012, I end up going to the Jurassic period and getting chased by a T-Rex," she added. Everyone could feel the acid tone in her voice. She...er...I have been through a lot.

Doc apologizes for it, but Future me ignores him as she puts the time machine back in her bag. B.O.B. tries talking to the future cyborg monster. "Excuse me, Miss Classified Bat?" He asks. She turns her head to him, then glances at me before glancing at the rest of the monsters.

"You can call me Future Bat...just so it doesn't get confusing around here...what B.O.B.?" she asked. B.O.B. got excited when she says his name. "So are you and Bat the same person?" Future Bat nods. "Yes. We are the same person. Standing in the same room, which you, Doc, told me not to do...so far nothing has happened...but I'm not gonna take any chances touching Bat." She turned to me. "Don't get near me or touch me." I nod.

Susan's eyes widen and she quickly pulls out a piece of paper. "Future Bat...F.B." she said in a low voice. Future Bat gave the giantess a look. "What?" She asked. Susan showed Future Bat her piece of paper.

"Link, Butterfly and I went to West Virginia a while ago. The mothman wanted to help us with something. We met a man named Indrid Cold. These were the list of things he told us," she said. I looked at the list as well:

Bagel

1142

10312009

Go right not left

He is still alive

Say Hi to Bat and F.B.

"Indrid Cold is the Mothman, Susan," I tell her. I looked over at Future Bat. Future Bat is creeped out. Her red cyborg eye and alien eye are wide with terror. "...There was never an encounter with the Mothman from when I was Bat's age," she admitted. "The mothman is known to predict horrible tragedies. Lives lost. He was the prophecy of death. he knew when horrible things are going to happen, and they come true."

The whole room went quiet from Future Bat's words. Everyone's hearts had picked up speed. They were now struck with terror.

"So what do we do then?" B.O.B. asked nervously. Susan pulled out her giant pen and crossed off the last thing on her list. "We figure out what Mr. Cold...The Mothman was trying to tell us. Figure out his coded message and stop John from doing whatever that he is doing," she said.

Future Bat nodded. "That's why I'm here. To stop John," she said. Link looked over to her. "You mean we don't win against John in the future?" He asked. Future Bat stares at Link for a long, silent moment. She turns her head away from all of us and silently shakes her head.

The silence breaks when we all hear the sound of a jetpack, then the sound of footsteps. I turned my head and felt my blood run cold. It was Monger. Uh oh. Monger saw me and stopped in his tracks. Double uh oh. He checked his watch then back at me. The times I wish I could turn invisible.

"Bat! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in school," My eyes widened. Oh shit! October! I was so thrown off by future me being here I completely forgot about October!

Monger saw my expression and glared. "You ditched class?! Why?" He stopped for a moment and looked at the other monsters before looking back at me. "You went to go fight the alien with them didn't you," he said. Not a question. I was screwed

I opened my mouth. "But-" Monger interrupted me.

"You can't just ditch your classes to fight a nearby alien! You aren't in anima!" It took me a moment to figure out what he was talking about.

"You mean an anime?" I asked.

Monger stuttered. "I meant anime! ...I may or may not have a granddaughter who may or may not be the same age as you and may or may not be into anime with girls who go to high school; always asking to be excused from class so they can get transformed into skimpy inappropriate outfits and go off to fight evil."

I blinked in surprise. "Which anime is that?"

Monger growled. "It doesn't matter! You are evading the subject that you ditched class to go fight aliens!"

I placed my hands up. "Ok. This looks bad I know, but something has just happened-"

"Oh? You mean like you getting grounded?" Monger threatened. I shook my head. "No. I apparently came from the future," I said. Monger shook his head once in disbelief. "That's the worst excuse I've ever heard. Next you'll be saying aliens are your homework!"

I pointed over to the Monsters. The monsters parted and the future me stood there. Still wearing that frown. Montero's jaw dropped for a moment. "...That's...you sure that's not that alien guy? The scientist you called him?"

"October?" B.O.B. asked. Monger gave him a look. "Yes, B.O.B. This month is October." I shook my head. "No, he means October the alien. That's what we named him." Monger gave me a puzzled look. "You named the shape shifting alien after the month?"

"No. His name is too hard to pronounce, but the first part of it sounds like October," future me responded. Nobody spoke as Monger looked over at future me and then back at me. "Go stand near her, Bat," Monger ordered. I did.

"Not too close, we cant touch," Future Bat warned. Monger looked back and forth at me and future me. He still wasn't convinced. Future Bat showed him the time machine. He asked her to prove it, but she didn't want to since if she did, she might not be able to come back to this time correctly. Monger was still suspicious of Future Bat, but let it slide.

"You've got a robot arm and a satellite dish for an ear, and a cyborg eye. I guess that's pretty futuristic for me," he finally concluded. Future Bat rolled her eyes. "I could've used my sonic screech on you and sent you flying. October and his kind can't do that. Only me."

Monger nodded, but had a smirk on his face. He was real excited about this time travel stuff. I guess this was something new for him. Then his smile faded when he looked down at me. "Get back to class, Bat. Have Patrick drive you back. I don't want any citizens seeing you flying around," he ordered.

"What about future me? Er...Future Bat?" I asked.

"She'll be fine here. She will help the monsters figure out how to take down John."

"I thought that was what I was supposed to be doing."

"Nope. You are grounded now. That also means in the flying way. No flying, no fighting aliens, no John."

My mouth dropped. "What?! That's not fair!" Monger frowned. "I'd say that it's pretty fair. You blew it Bat." I bared my fang. "I want to help!" I shouted. Monger pointed to the elevator. "You can help by getting your butt to school. Now march!" He ordered.

I had the sudden urge to scream at Monger. My alien eyes flickered over to future me. She slowly shook her head. I balled my hands into fists. My eyes glaring at both Monger and future me behind my sunglasses. Then turned and marched away.

...


	16. Chapter 15: Human Boys and Vampire Girls

Chapter 15: Human Boys and Vampire Girls

...

* * *

...

I got back to school right when lunch was ending. October and I met in the girls bathroom again. October was really upset at me for not coming back sooner. I told him I was sorry and told him about Future Bat. He stopped being upset and his human eyes widened, flickering to his regular alien eyes.

"From the future?! How? Why?" He asked. I narrowed my eyes and looked down at the ground. "I don't know," was all I said. The bell rang to indicate class was in session. October turned back into a crow and flew back into the pine trees. I fixed up my tan colored makeup on my face and adjusted the beanie on my head. My wings slipped back through my backpack. I had to be careful since I was still hurting from the alien fight. I walked out of the girls bathroom and started walking along the hallway of lockers; when suddenly, Mirror appeared around the corner with Joker. I stopped in my tracks and felt my shoulders slump.

Great.

"Don't think we have forgotten about you," Mirror snapped. I rolled my eyes. "I don't have time for this," I said as I tried strolling past them. Joker pushed me backwards. His hair was super bright green today. Nearly tripping over my feet, I placed my hand on the side of the lockers to get my center of gravity back. My wounds and bruises from the alien attack were still healing on their own. I was still in a bunch of pain. I didn't want to get into another fight today.

"We aren't letting you off that easy, freak" Mirror said as she pointed at my sunglasses. "Why do you wear those all the time? You trying to be cool or something?" I snorted. "You trying to be cool by picking on people?"

Joker came up to me. I got in a ready position. He was hesitant from our first fight. I could see it in his eyes and feel it in his heart. I stared back at the big guy. He was wearing another Joker shirt. From the Animated Batman series. I still needed to watch that series.

"Why do you hang with her? You could do so much better," I told Joker. Mirror snapped and came at me herself. I jumped to the side, but Joker grabbed me while I was distracted with Mirror. Mirror grabbed for my beanie while Joker grabbed for my sunglasses.

I kicked Mirror away and used my other arm to shoulder Joker in the stomach. Joker's hand slapped me across the face. I stumbled backwards, tripping over my feet and landing on the cement walkway. I groaned in pain. My face was stinging from the slap. I gently touched it with my fingertips, then quickly pulled away. My sunglasses sat crooked on my face.

Joker gasped in terror. I looked up. His hand was covered in my tan makeup. Mirror's mouth was hanging open. Both bullies were staring right at me with looks of terror on their faces; like they just have seen a...

"Vampire!" Mirror shrieked.

I felt my blood run cold and heart pounding against my ribcage. The make up was wiped off from my face. They are seeing my paper white skin underneath. Mirror took huge steps backwards, still gapping at me. She didn't see Hunter as she bumped into him. She cried out and shoved Hunter away from her. When she recognized him, she pointed at me.

"Your freak of a girlfriend is a vampire!" She shouted, then ran down the hallway. Joker just stood there, stunned. Hunter gave both of us confused looks. I quickly turned away from the two boys and ran into the girls bathroom. I looked at my face in the mirror.

Most of my death white skin was showing.

I realized one of my normal eye contacts was gone. It must have been during the alien attack. One of them must have fallen off. I felt sick to my stomach as I stared at my one "normal human eye" and my real alien eye. That's why Mirror called me a vampire. She could see my yellow and orange eye through the lenses.

I didn't have a back up, so I was gonna have to avoid everyones eye contact the rest of the day. I made my way back to class. Hunter kept turning his head over to me. I avoided his gaze and kept my face hidden behind a book. The tips of my Bat ears burned inside the beanie.

...

The rest of the day sucked. My backpack didn't have my homework so I got detention again. There was another test in another class and I most likely bombed it. And in my last class, Art, I got a C- for half finished work. Maybe Monger was right. I am not in an anime. I can't juggle being a teenager and a hero going out to save the world from alien Invasions. But as I said before, it's not easy being a teenager who was a monster. I learned the hard way I couldn't go back to being normal. This was how it was going to be.

The bell rang and I made my way to detention. I had my head low so no one could see my eyes. Kennith was there too. He noticed me and waved. I didn't wave back and waited ten feet away from him.

"Hey, hows it going?" He asked. I didn't answer. He kept trying to see my eyes but I would turn away. "Is something wrong? Hey...hey...Come on." He tried. He came up to me and placed his hand gently on my shoulder. I tried moving away but bumped into a tree. My whole face burned from his touch. What was he doing.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," he said gently before I could slap his hand away from me. I knew he wouldn't, but that didn't change the way I thought about him. He gingerly cupped my chin in his hand and tilted my head up to him. I closed my eyes.

"You are crying," I heard him say. His voice was filled with worry.

I turned my head away, out of his hand. He pulled out a small packet of tissues and offered one to me. I was hesitant. The guy smiled a small warm smile. "It's ok. You can take one," he said. I took one and turned away from him. I wiped my eyes from under my sunglasses.

"It looks like it's just going to be me and you today huh?" Kennith said. I stopped wiping my eyes and looked around. He was right. It was just the two of us. Kennith flashed a smile to me. "Wanna work together? We don't have to race." I hesitated. Why was he suddenly being nice to me? I wasn't sure how to respond. I've never had a guy take notice to me. I mean...besides Hunter. This was a new experience for me.

Eventually I nodded my head. Kennith smiled happily. "I heard from some students that you fought Mirr and Jason again. I wish I saw it. I like seeing a girl stick up for herself, not needing saving all the time. You are amazing," he said. I blushed.

We got our bags and started walking around the school together. I began to warm up around him and started talking to asking questions. As Kennith talked, I started to notice how pretty blue his eyes were...

Afterwards, i said goodbye to Kennith and made my way to my locker to grab my books. I sighed, already seeing the beginning of a horrible rumor. My locker was vandalized with drawings of teeth and fangs, crosses and 'Vampire Freak' written in big letters. I didn't even bare my fang at Mirror and she was already freaking out about my pale face and yellow alien eye.

"Oh my gosh it's the vampire girl," I heard a guy and a girl whisper to eachother fifteen feet from me. Other footsteps were heard around me. People staring and some giggling. I just grabbed my books, then went to the girls bathroom for a paper towel to put under the water and erase what they wrote on my locker. I'm sure if I kept it up there, the principal would think I did it.

Afterwards, I walked to the place where Patrick always picked me up. I texted him that I was going to be running late because of detention. While I waited, I couldnt stop thinking about Kennith. Occasionally I thought of Link. Ok fine, I always thought about him. Even in class I doodled him in my notebooks. Sometimes writing little scenarios where he would take me in his arms and hold me. This time I was thinking about Kennith. I shook my head. No. I'm not going to start liking him just because he was nice to me this one time. I pulled out my homework to distract myself from my thoughts...

I waited for a half hour for Patrick to come. He was usually on time. I bet he was disappointed on me for ditching class too. He was like a dad to me. I told him I had detention. I started to wonder where he was. Possibly still at the base drinking coffee. I looked up at the sky as a few birds flew by. The sun was boiling down on my head and making me sweat. I wiped my forehead and felt my makeup melting on my face.

I really badly wanted to spread my wings and just fly back to base. I would already be there by the time Patrick got here. I started to imagine how that would be with people around. I think I'd smile if I heard gasps from kids. Maybe scare Mirror and Joker. Show off my fang and say I am feeling thirsty-

I looked up when I heard the choking sound of an exhaust pipe. Hunter came up in an old red Mustang. A bigfoot air freshener hung from the rearview mirror and there were a couple UFO stickers on the side.

"Hey! Need a ride? I finally got my car back from the shop. It breaks down a lot, but it seems to be doing allright."

I hesitated for a moment. Sinking in the scene that was laid out before me. "I don't know...I'm sure Patrick will be here soon," I said, not really sure. Hunter patted the pleather passenger seat. "Come on. I've got Mothman shaped pop tarts," he stretched out the words to sound enticing as he showed me one. "Since it's now October, the stores came out with their Halloween food. My faves are the cryptid pop tarts."

I stared quietly for a moment. Humter turned up the AC. "I've got a working AC." I got in. I was such an easy kid to kidnap. Hunter beamed as he gestured inside his car. "Welcome to the Cryptonomica! I named her myself. I take this baby everywhere to find cryptids and monsters. I tried sneaking out earlier to get closer pics of that UFO, but the school was on lockdown and they weren't allowing kids to leave." He pulled away from the sidewalk and drove down the long stretch of road.

"Oh," was all I said, feeling my wounds sting. Hunter kept talking while I nibbled on the wings of my mothman poptart. Soon, he stopped talking and the radio kept the silence from being awkward and played a couple songs. I looked out the window and watched the stretches of green trees and fields of grass go by, accompanied by a red house or a blue house.

"So um...w-would you like me to buy the tickets?" Hunter suddenly asked. I turned my head to him and narrowed my eyes in confusion. "Tickets?" I asked. Hunter blushed and looked away.

"F-for the H-Halloween dance..." he said. I felt the blood rush from my face. "What? I'm very confused," I said. Hunter seemed very hurt by my words. He told me that during lunch, he asked me out to the dance during class and I had said yes.

October said yes.

I made a mental note in my head to never ask October to pretend to be me. My face burned from realizing what was happening. I was going to a dance with a boy.

"Oh! Right...sorry I...have a lot of things on my mind...You can drop me off here," I said. Hunter blinked in surprise. "But there's no houses here for miles. Let me take you to your house-"

"I can walk, I'm fine."

Hunter pulled his car over and slowed to a rickety stop.

"Hey...if its about Mirr today, nothing changes between us. You don't need to hide from me. I accept you for who you are...a-and if it's about the dance...we-we could just go as friends," Hunter added. I blushed and nodded thank you to him. Hunter and I stood there for a while staring at each other. We both quickly turned away.

"Um...if you want to change your mind about walking home..." Hunter said awkwardly. I hesitated, then sadly shook my head. "I can walk home...thank you for the ride, Hunter. I'm glad you are my friend."

Hunter kept his eyes on the steering wheel as he nodded. Keeping his eyes away from me. His light blonde hair rustled in the breeze. I could hear his heart beating a hundred beats a minute. He was very embarassed and worried that I was thinking about changing my mind about going to the dance with him. I felt bad, but didn't say anything.

"Bye." He said.

"Bye."

With that, his rusty red Mustang choked and belched exhaust before taking off down the road, turning around and driving back. He waved as he passed by me. I waved back until he was completely gone. I walked alone on the beaten dirt path, deep in my thoughts. Thinking about all that has happened to me in the last eight hours.

I called Patrick, leaving a message of where I was, then kept walking.

When Patrick picked me up we drove the rest of the way back to the base. Patrick apologized for being late. He had to go pick his daughter up from school. Apparently she got detention too. Also her school was close to the city where the alien invasion happened so traffic was insane. I told him he didn't need to apologize. I told him about my day. He didn't say anything till I was done.

"Wow, you had a busy day it sounds like," he said. I nodded. "I just want one day to be normal," I muttered. Patrick smiled at me from the rearview mirror. "Well, tomorrow is Saturday. You wont have to deal with classes," he said, trying to cheer me up. I nodded again, but thought about my future self at the base. How was that going to make it any normal?

When I got to the base, everyone was gone, including future me. Monger told me there was another alien invasion. Of course there was. I didn't bother asking for any more details. After all that has happened today, I just wanted to lay down. I walked down the huge hallway, lingering along Link's room, then went into my room. I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

...


	17. Chapter 16: Fly Girl and Future Girl

Chapter 16: Fly Girl and Future Girl

...

* * *

...

The next day was Saturday so I didn't have to worry about going to school and dealing with Mirror and Joker. I got up, took a shower and got dressed. When I went to the cafeteria for food, everyone was there. Including me.

Future me.

Link was talking to future me. Everyone else was listening to what she had to say. She was the center of attention and it didn't seem to bother her as she talked about what she encountered while time traveling.

I sat down with them, staying away from future me; mainly since she warned me about that we cant touch each other or the whole world will explode. Future Bat looked over to me. Her cyborg eye glowed a bright red.

"Hello, Bat. How are you doing?" She asked. It was weird to think this monster was me from the future, saying hello to me like I was another person. I looked away, not wanting to be seen staring, or being stared at, and just shrugged.

"Must be weird talking to yourself," Susan said. Future Bat shrugged. "Going to different pasts and futures, nothing is weird anymore," she said. I calmly ate my food in silence while everyone talked. While everyone did, I paid attention to my future self.

I had to admit, seeing myself being a little more confident in talking to everyone, it made me have hope in myself that I was going to be confident when being the center of attention. Future me had no problem talking to the monsters, but she did have that tense feeling about her; as if she was ready for anything to come out and attack. Which ironically happened.

One of the cooks accidentally dropped one of the pans in the kitchen, causing a loud sound. Everyone jumped not only to the sound, but to Future Bat, she quickly stood up in her seat, and in a quick motion, her robot arm turned into a gun. Her one bat ear flicked back, while her satellite dish for an ear turned forward, alert. Her wingspan stretched out wide on both sides of her, nearly hitting Link in the face. Both her cyborg eye and alien eye were narrowed and her fangs were out and sharp. Everyone's mouths, including mine, dropped.

"Woah," B.O.B. said.

"Holy sh...shoes," Link said, trying not to curse.

"Oh my goodness!" Doc and Susan said at the same time.

"How did this happen?" I asked in shock and terror. It was bad enough seeing that I was gonna be losing an arm, an ear and an eye in the future, but now I have a gun for an arm?! Future Bat straightened her posture and lowered her gun arm, realizing that there was no threat. She jumped down and with one quick motion, the gun went away and changed back into a regular robot arm.

Doc was immediately checking out her robot arm and examining it; asking a million questions at once. Susan looked over at me. I looked back up at her and shrugged, shaking my head. I had no idea what the hell just happened. B.O.B. was spouting off how "Amazing Bat suddenly was." I felt my heart hurt a little. How cool Future me was. Not now me.

Link was smiling big, but quickly took it down a few notches and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to act cool and casual.

"Nice arm," he said.

Future Bat nodded a thanks to him. It was some sort of plasma gun. When she went into the far off future, we had joined forces with October's alien race and we were all advanced in alien technology, so she was able to get a robot arm that turned into a gun.

"That...is freaking cool. Makes me want to lose my arm," Link said. B.O.B. butted in excitedly, "Me too! It would look so cool with my cyborg eye. Which store did you get it at? Walnut? Tarp it? Best Guy?" Doc smiled at B.O.B. then turned to Future Bat.

"I'm sure that plutonium is available in every corner drugstore, but here, it's a little hard to come by," he said, loosely quoting Back to the Future. Future Bat smirked, getting the reference.

"That's why I haven't fired this thing...yet." she said, sitting back down and taking a bite out of an apple. "Been saving it all for John...for what he took from me..." she added in a cold serious tone. Everyone glanced at her robotic features, and the whole room was immediately dead quiet. Susan thankfully broke the dead silence and asked me a question.

"So how was school yesterday, Bat? Hope you didn't get in trouble," said Doc, referencing back to when I ditched class. Everyone turned their eyes to me. I felt my face burn. I kept my eyes down on my cereal. "The rest of the day was...ok," I said, not really wanting to get into any details.

"Did you get holy water splashed onto you yet?" Future Bat asked. Everyone turned their eyes to her. Link couldn't help but to laugh, but then stopped when he saw how serious Future Bat was.

I shook my head in confusion. "No?" Future Bat slowly nodded and looked away. "I'd say avoid that one girls bathroom for a while. Go to the one over in the P.E. lockers," she instructed me. I nodded my head. "Um...ok."

"What's going on?" asked Susan. I gave my future self a quick glare and turned back. "This one girl who's in one of my classes, Mirr. She saw one of my real eyes and called me a vampire," I explained.

Link snorted. "Not a vampire, but I'd take this opportunity and mess with them. Bare your fangs-"

"No, Link. That's not right-" Susan started.

"I was just suggesting to give them a little scare. Bat needs to show she isn't one to be messed with."

"Yes, but that also made her get in trouble."

"Even when she doesn't do anything," Link threw back.

Doc quickly intervened. "Stop, stop, lady and gent. Bat knows what's right and wrong, she makes her own choices."

Link snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "Ditching class to fight aliens with us. Right. She knows how to make the right choices."

"Shut up Fishstick," Future Bat and I said in unison.

Doc placed his hands up. "Bats, please-" he started, but future me got to from her seat. "I need to check on the machine," she said and walked off. Took me a moment to realize she meant the time machine. Everyone went quiet as we all silently finished our breakfast.

...

At around noon time, I decided to work on my homework in my room. I just needed to do my math and history homework. I was in the low Math class, learning algebra, and learning about World War II for history. Super boring stuff. I was reading about Mustard gas when I heard footsteps coming. I looked up just as Future Bat appeared and stopped before my room.

She took a moment, almost like she was reliving her past, staring in my somewhat bare room. The limited items I had now because of the explosion when John blew up my room. She came in silently and just looked around. I wondered if she was trying to remember the time when my room was normal. When we were normal.

"Hey," I said, breaking her gaze from my small collection of books on the shelf. She nodded back. "Hello...don't mind me. I'm just...looking...It's been a while since I last saw this room." I didn't really know what she meant by that but decided not to dwell. I went back to my homework. I felt her gaze land on my head.

"What are you learning about?" She asked.

"World War II," I said. Then had an idea. "What are the answers to the World History test coming up?" I asked her. Future Bat gave me a bewildered look.

"I don't remember. It's been forever since I had that class...That stuff is pointless anyway," She pointed out. I slowly nodded my head. "Ok." This sucked. My future self couldn't help me with anything.

"You'll graduate...don't stress about it."

I nodded, feeling some sense of relief in my body. Future Bat went over to the small TV. I decided to ask the other question. "What happens to me...us...in the future?" Future Bat's head . She looked away, as if scared by the question.

"I...I can't answer that."

"Why not?" I asked.

She looked away from me down the hallway, as if she was looking back into the past and reliving it. "There are some things I don't want to tell you. Not yet at least...just...it's going to be rough when you get older, and...I just hope this will all be worth it." She admits.

I give her a confused look. "When we take John down?" I asked her. Future Bat silently nodded. Her mind fixated on the past. Her eyes filled with anger and sadness. I could feel her pain. Our pain. Unbearable pain of what was lost. I feel horrible, and scared at the same time. I dont know what to do or say to myself. It was all just too bizarre to comprehend.

She looked over to me and can see the confusion and fear in my eyes. She shook her head and tried changing the subject. She asked about my classes and my friends. I told her about Hunter and Kennith. She narrowed her eyes when I mentioned Kennith's name. She was about to say something when we both heard familiar footsteps.

""Hey Fly Girl. Hey Future Girl," Link said as he poked his head into my room. My face went scarlet. I know Future Bat was me from the future, but it also felt like another person knowing my little secret. I looked over to Future Bat who's face did not turn the same fire truck engine red. It stayed snowy white. She inclined her head, face stern.

"I assume Monger wishes to speak to me," she said. The fish are hybrid blinked in surprise, then smirked in amusement. "Yeah. Good guess. He wants to talk to you about some important matters," he said. Future me nodded and turned to me. "Good luck on your homework and quiz, Bat."

With that, she walked past Link. As she did, Link gently flicked her bat ear. She turned her head to face him. Link quickly looked away and pretended to be interested at my ceiling. Future Bat stared at him for a long while, then gently poked him in the shoulder and walked out. Her metal shoes making heavy metallic tapping sounds as she walked off down the hallway.

I stared at Link in surprise at his strange action he did to Future Bat. I decided not to dwell on it and tried saying hi to Link, but he didn't seem to hear me as he walked out of my room and just stood there looking down the hallway. Was he watching Future Bat walk away? Then he just walked out. Weird. I guess he had other things on his mind I assumed and went back to doing homework.

...

Later on in the day I found Future Bat in the hangout room, flipping through the channels. "Where's the horror station?" She asked without turning her head. I was quiet for a moment. "Um...I don't know, " I said. She kept flipping the channels. I stared at the back of my future self's head. I had a million questions swimming around me. I wanted to ask them. Why wouldn't my future self answer them? It upset me a lot.

"Shouldn't we be worried about John? You seem to know when he's going to strike, why don't we go after him?" I asked. Future Bat shook her head. "I've already talked to Monger about what happens in the future. Every time I tried getting to John now only made things worse..." she touches her robot arm. "I don't want you going through what happened to me-"

"Then tell me what happened! I hate being kept in the dark on this. Seeing you...me as a cyborg makes me nervous on making certain choices."

Future Bat's ear flicked back in irritation. I could feel her heart beating a little faster. She turned her head to face me. I tried focusing on her alien eye. Her cyborg eye freaked me out.

"This is what you should know: Stay in school. Don't go after John...you know Monger didn't give you a real mission. He just wanted you...me to finish school so he could get the other officials to stop breathing down his neck about us being under aged in the whole "Monsters vs Aliens" program. It was to keep us out of trouble until we turned eighteen. That's it. John will be taken care of in the end."

I narrowed my eyes. "Did Monger tell you to say that-?"

Future got up from the couch suddenly, it startled me.

"I'm telling you. You. From the frickin future. I don't want my past self getting hurt. You got hurt that wasn't part of the timeline."

I asked her what she meant. She sighed in irritation.

"Anything that happens to you will affect me...does your right side still hurt from the alien attack yesterday?" she asked.

I nodded. I got scratched up pretty bad. Future Bat lifts her shirt up and shows me an ugly looking scar on her right side. Exactly in the same area, but dark white in comparison to the pure white skin.

My eyes widen as I lift my shirt up and find a fresh scratched up area. Very slowly healing to become an ugly scar. We both lower our shirts back down in unison. I look over to her left arm. Her cyborg arm.

"Our body is healing faster than humans, why am I getting scars? Why don't I grow an arm back?" I pointed out. Future Bat shakes her head. "We are still half human. We will be able to heal faster, but if it's a deep wound or..." she lifts her arm. "...we still lose things like a human."

"How do I lose my arm?" I asked. Hoping to trick my Future self in answering.

Future Bat unfortunately knew what I was doing. Of course she did. She was me. Future me sat back down on the sofa, facing away from me again. She went back to changing the channels.

"What's the horror channel?" She asked again.

I opened my mouth to say I had no idea again, but then a deep voice answered for me. His hand went on my shoulder and I almost turned to jelly right there. His heart beat heavily behind my bat ears. My wings lightly brushed up against his chest and arms.

"Keep going...stop. Cool. Wolf man is on," Link said as he took his hand off my shoulder and went down to sit next to Future me. I stood there and watched the backs of their heads.

A growing jealously was beginning to happen inside me. Link was hanging out with my future self. I blushed. Was that a good thing? Did that mean he liked me? I wasnt able to wonder about it for long when my Future self quickly got up from her spot. Her heart was beating a little faster than normal.

"I'll be back," Future Bat announced and started walking away from us.

"Ok, Terminator," Link responded, causing Future Bat to stop in her tracks. She didn't turn around. I stared at her back. My back. Her heart was beating heavily. Almost in pain. Why was she in pain? Then she shook her head and walked off.

Links ears flicked back. "Not the kind of response I was expecting," he admitted. He turned to me "Is she...er...you...ok?" He asked. I shook my head. "I don't know," I admitted. Link turned to watch my future self walk away. "Seems to be upset at me," he said.

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Just...feels like she gives me the cold shoulder. Looks at me with a frown. Seems always upset. I don't know if I did something to upset you in the future," the fishman said.

I shook my head. "No. I don't think that's it."

Link cocked his head. "Don't think what's it?"

I thought back to when she was in my room. "She...l...acts like that because she had a hard time. She lost pieces of her while time travelling. Fought John in timelines. It must have been rough for her...when she was in my room, she just stared off, like she was reliving a moment."

Link was quiet, I could feel his heart in pain, regretting the words he said. "I've seen her do that sometimes. I want to help her, talk to her, but she doesn't seem to want to open up to any of us."

I nodded, looking down at the table. My possible future I was going to be going through. Link sighed. "I hope you don't end up like that. Whatever happens to you...looks like it really messed you up." I just nodded silently. Link was quiet for a moment, I could feel his eyes on me. His heart beat heavily inside his huge chest.

He was worried about me.

I was worried about myself too.

..


End file.
